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Christopher P. Beall is a partner of the firm, representing media organizations and others in libel, trademark, false advertising, copyright, public access and other related First Amendment issues. Mr. Beall’s recent IP litigation has included a successful two-day preliminary injunction trial in Denver, Colo., for 5280 Magazine in a trademark dispute regarding its mark “5280,” and a six-day jury trial in the Southern District of New York involving trade dress claims by competing jewelry designers. Mr. Beall also handled a full evidentiary trial of a trademark opposition involving the mark “THE OTHER WHITE MEAT” in a case before the U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board in Washington, D.C. Mr. Beall has handled numerous other matters before the TTAB. In addition to Mr. Beall’s intellectual property work, he also has represented news media clients and others in access litigation for more than a decade, helping to obtain public access to everything from police internal affairs reports to recordings of illegally conducted meetings of public bodies. He also was part of the legal team that represented the news media during the Kobe Bryant rape case in Eagle, Colorado, including the prior restraint litigation in the Colorado Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court. He was lead counsel for the Cortez Journal newspaper in the case Wilson v. Meyer, 126 P.3d 376 (Colo. Ct. App. 2005), which expanded the fair report doctrine under Colorado law. Most recently, in a First Amendment case under the federal Civil Rights Act, Mr. Beall successfully represented a journalist/radio talk show host in a seven-day trial where the jury found that a county commission chairman had retaliated against the journalist for critical coverage and commentary.

Prior to practicing law, Mr. Beall was a staff writer and then bureau chief for the Providence Journal-Bulletin, in Providence, Rhode Island. He also was a staff writer for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, in Las Vegas, Nevada, and during his undergraduate years he worked for the Hartford Courant, San Jose Mercury-News, the News & Observer (Raleigh, North Carolina), and the Alameda Times-Star.

Mr. Beall received his B.A., with distinction in the major, from Yale University in 1985, and he received his J.D., summa cum laude, Order of the Coif, from Duke Law School in 1997. While at Duke, in 1996, Mr. Beall took overall first place in the First Amendment Center’s First Amendment Moot Court competition at Vanderbilt Law School, as well as winning the trophy for “Best Brief.” He was senior notes editor of the Duke Law Journal. Mr. Beall served as law clerk to the Hon. David M. Ebel, Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, 1997-1998. Mr. Beall is admitted to the practice of law in Colorado and New Mexico, as well as before the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court. Mr. Beall also is a member of the adjunct faculty at the Sturm College of Law at the University of Denver, where he teaches on media law and trademark matters. Mr. Beall currently serves on the Board of Directors of Colorado Lawyer Trust Account Foundation, which is responsible for supporting legal services organizations in Colorado, and he is a member of the Planning Commission of the City of Westminster. Mr. Beall previously was a partner of the firm Faegre & Benson, LLP.