Yana Durell received her J.D. from the University of Arizona, James E. Rogers Law School in 2010.  While at the University of Arizona she explored a variety of legal experiences in diverse legal fields, including interning for an Appellate Division at the Pima County Public Defender’s Office and working as a summer associate for criminal defense, personal injury, and intellectual property firms in Phoenix, AZ.  After graduating law school, Yana began her career as a criminal defense, personal injury, and insurance defense attorney serving on an “of counsel” basis for two law firms in Phoenix, AZ.  While Yana represented both Plaintiff and defense sides of personal injury litigation, she truly enjoys working in the field of insurance defense.  Yana joined the Waltz Law Firm as an associate in October of 2014. and is licensed in both Colorado and Arizona.  She is a member of the State Bar of Arizona and the Colorado Defense Lawyers’ Association.

Mr. Reeves has over 21 years of experience investigating, arbitrating, and litigating tort, regulatory, environmental, product liability and toxic/mass tort actions throughout the Country at both the trial and appellate levels. His experience includes representing clients in education, law enforcement, medical, oil and gas, technology, and energy industries. He has appeared before administrative, trial and appellate courts on issues related to due process, civil liberties, OSHA violations, employment, insurance, personal injury, and contract disputes. Mr. Reeves is often asked to provide testimony before the Colorado Supreme Court, the Colorado General Assembly, and the Senate on proposed Rules and legislation related to the rules of evidence, civil torts, diversity, and dependency and neglect. In the course of his career, Mr. Reeves has been lead counsel for more than 35 jury trials to verdict. He has also successfully represented clients before Colorado, Georgia, and Wyoming State and Federal appellate courts. Mr. Reeves started his trial counsel career as a public defender, wherein he handled due process, equal protection, constitutional violations, and similar issues. He volunteers with the Colorado Bar Association’s Federal Pro Se Clinic providing free legal advice to litigants.

Mr. Reeves is the past president of Colorado’s civil defense bar, the Colorado Defense Lawyers Association. He is also active in multiple legal organizations, including being on the board of the Colorado Judicial Institute, the Faculty of Federal Advocates, and a committee member to the Colorado Bar Association and the Colorado LGBTQ Bar Association. Mr. Reeves focuses his bar activities on improving the well-being of the Bar and advancing diversity initiatives for the Bar and the bench. As a foster and adoptive parent, he is on the board of a mental health non-profit focused on family and children services in Colorado. He also teaches and presents on dependency and neglect laws and proposed legislation.

Prior to entering practice, Mr. Reeves clerked for Chief Administrative Law Judge Ronnie A. Yoder, at the U.S. Department of Transportation, where he was responsible for handling DOT Hazardous Materials Transportation Regulations violations. Mr. Reeves received his J.D. in 2001 from Vermont Law School, where he also received his Masters of Law in Environmental Law and served as the Editor for the Journal of Environmental Law and was a member of the Moot Court Board. Mr. Reeves received his undergraduate degree in Biology from the University of South Carolina in 1998, where he was a member of the Omicron Delta Kappa National Honors Society.

Licensed to practice in Georgia, Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado, Mr. Reeves has been named Super Lawyer in Georgia since 2007 and in Colorado since 2013. Mr. Reeves has published in law reviews and other legal publications and frequently teaches on various legal topics.

Mr. Reeves is licensed and actively practices in Colorado, Georgia, Utah, and Wyoming.

Awards & Honors

Exceptional Performance Citation – Defense Research Institute (DRI) (2020)

Colorado Super Lawyers Rising Star – Environmental Law (2013-2015)

Georgia Super Lawyers Rising Star – Environmental Law (2007-2012)

Mr. Waltz retired from his full-time position as a founding partner of Waltz|Reeves in 2022. He continues to practice as Of Counsel to the firm on select matters. For over 40 years, Mr. Waltz’s Colorado practice has focused primarily in the area of defense litigation emphasizing products liability, construction defect, personal injury, public entity, and professional malpractice in both state and federal courts. Mr. Waltz personally has tried over 90 jury trials involving significant injuries, which include Plaintiffs claiming significant economic, non-economic and disability damages from paraplegia, quadriplegia, significant closed head injuries and wrongful death, including other very serious orthopedic injuries. Mr. Waltz has defended hundreds of complex litigation matters, e.g., construction defect claims under C.D.A.R.A., contracts, products liability, public entity defense, intellectual property claims, premises liability claims and professional malpractice and litigated complex commercial and contract matters including asbestos abatement cases to verdict. He also has extensive experience in litigating insurance coverage, declaratory actions and bad faith matters and has testified as an expert in such cases. Mr. Waltz has authored briefs and argued numerous appellate matters in the state and federal courts of Colorado, including matters involving the original jurisdiction of the Colorado Supreme Court. The Waltz Law Firm focuses almost exclusively on defense litigation. In 2008 he was selected as a Super Lawyer in the state of Colorado.

From 1974-1981, Mr. Waltz’s Ohio practice included his representation of the Ohio National Guardsmen in personal injury litigation arising out of the shooting at the Kent State University campus. Later, as Assistant Attorney General in Ohio and Chief Prosecutor for Medicaid Fraud and President of the National Association of Medicaid Fraud Control Units, he supervised the prosecution of nursing home abuse, statewide grand jury investigation and criminal/civil prosecutions of fraud and abuse of the Medicaid system.

Mr. Waltz graduated from The Ohio State University in 1969. He was honorably discharged from the United States Army in 1971 after two years of active duty. In 1974, he graduated from the University of Toledo law school, where he was a research editor on the University of Toledo Law Review. He is a member of the Colorado and Denver Bar Associations and the Colorado Defense Lawyers’ Association and a member of the Defense Research Institute.

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Christopher R. Reeves

Richard Waltz

Waltz | Reeves is a regional law firm with lawyers practicing throughout the Rocky Mountain region enabling us to assist companies with their legal needs in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming.