For nearly three decades, Marco Chayet has shaped elder law in Colorado into a discipline prioritizing human dignity.
In the mid-90s, while Chayet was interning in the Denver District Attorney’s Office, his grandmother became the subject of a landmark probate case regarding her care and finances as her health declined.
“It opened my eyes,” Chayet recalled. “At the time, elder law wasn’t even a well-developed area of practice. But I saw the vulnerability. I saw that despite diminished capacity, people shouldn’t lose their right to due process or dignity.”
In 2001, Chayet launched Chayet & Danzo with a deliberately holistic vision. What started as a plan sketched on cocktail napkins has grown into a 22-person team known for handling some of the most sensitive legal matters individuals and families face, from questions around incapacity and aging to special needs and disability.
“We are often the emergency room doctors of the law,” he says. “These are the most traumatic events in a client’s life. You have to be more than an attorney; you have to be a counselor.”
Attorneys across practice areas regularly turn to Chayet when cases intersect with guardianships, conservatorships or special needs planning. His work spans both private representation and public service, including appointments as a guardian ad litem and his role as public administrator for the 18th Judicial District.
In these capacities, Chayet often represents individuals with no family or resources. “These challenges aren’t limited by wealth,” he says. “They affect everyone. The legal questions may look different on paper, but the human stakes are the same.”
Beyond his practice, Chayet has aimed to build the field of elder law. He serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Colorado Law School, his alma mater, and endowed the school’s first elder law scholarship, helping formalize a discipline that barely existed when he began his career.
He has served on the Colorado Supreme Court Nominating Commission, as an original commissioner for the Office of Public Guardianship and as a trustee for the Next50 initiative, a $250-million foundation focused on aging.
He has published, among others, How to Protect Your Family’s Assets from Devastating Nursing Home Costs (Colorado Edition). He is a member of the Academy of Special Needs Planners and the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys.
Chayet also serves on the board of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, where he advocates for expanding access to the arts for aging and disabled communities.