At 5-foot-1 tall “on a good day,” Meshach Rhoades jokes that she doesn’t come across as a basketball point guard. But the mindset she developed as a collegiate player has guided her legal career.
“It’s a point guard’s job to understand everyone’s strengths, to bring the team together and to put people in the best position to succeed,” she said. “That’s how I approach my practice. My role is connecting clients with the best resources across the firm, facilitating collaboration, finding the most appropriate response and ensuring they’re getting the collective benefit.”
Now stepping into what she called “the second half of her career,” the 30th-generation Coloradan is bringing her collaborative playbook to Hogan Lovells Cadwalader. Rhoades recently joined the firm’s Denver office as a partner in its litigation practice, marking the firm’s first lateral partner hire for the Americas litigation practice following the combination of Hogan Lovells and the historic New York-based firm Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft.
A Collaborative Move
For Rhoades, the transition to HLC was driven by the opportunity to pair a global platform with local density in a state she loves.
“I wanted to be a part of a firm with exceptional depth of talent and resources and the breadth of a platform that allows it to bring together the right lawyers across those practices and industries to solve our clients’ most complex challenges,” she said.
Alongside the firm’s international reach, HLC’s reputation for teamwork solidified Rhoades’ decision. “People don’t work in silos. The practice groups are constantly communicating across industries and offices, sharing knowledge and experience seamlessly.”
Rhoades noted that this stage of her professional journey can come with momentum. “At this stage in my career, I have a lot of runway left,” she said. “The global platform allows me to provide deeper bench strength for my clients while complementing the sophisticated work our practitioners are already doing right here in Denver.”
From Skill Development to Team Leadership
Rhoades draws a line between athletic progression and building a top-tier litigation practice.
“Early in your career, like early in athletics, you’re doing skill development,” Rhoades said. “You’re working on individual fundamentals, preparing relentlessly and learning how to perform under pressure. But as matters become larger and more sophisticated — class actions, commercial disputes, investigations, regulatory matters — success no longer depends on individual performance. It depends on building the best team and leading that team.”
That philosophy has steered her work defending corporate clients across sectors like healthcare, technology, financial services, consumer products and sports.
Rhoades observed that corporate legal exposure has shifted throughout the years of her legal work; risk is now both more fragmented and more interconnected. “Legal problems don’t stay in one lane anymore,” she said. “A cybersecurity issue, for instance, can quickly become a regulatory investigation, and even quicker than that, become a class action. If you don’t have a team that understands all of those lanes, you leave the client exposed.”
This cross-disciplinary reality has reshaped how litigators must advise their clients, she said. This includes:
- Courtroom Victories: “It used to be about getting the case, winning the motion, defeating class certification or winning oral argument,” Rhoades said. “Those are still remarkably important, but a significant dispute now creates regulatory scrutiny, board concerns, media attention and brand implications. You can no longer litigate in a box. An aggressive courtroom strategy might work on paper, but it could create unnecessary commercial or reputational risk.”
- Fast-Paced Regulatory Fronts: Corporate legal departments are managing rapid developments around artificial intelligence integration, data privacy laws, cybersecurity threats and fluctuating federal and state priorities.
- The New Era of Sports Law: As a sports enthusiast, Rhoades has watched the sports industry become an intersectional hotspot for antitrust, employment, media rights, intellectual property and commercial litigation. Propelling legal demands are issues surrounding Name, Image and Likeness restructuring in college sports and the growth of women’s sports.
In addition to her legal work, Rhoades has served as president of the Colorado Hispanic Bar Association and spent years on the executive committee of the Hispanic National Bar Association. “Those organizations grounded me,” she said. “They provided an environment to grow, gain trust and find out what leadership means in the legal profession alongside people who share similar values.”
Rhoades is also on a mission to expand access to the profession, inspired by her own experience. “My parents were both teachers,” she said. “I had no idea how to get to college or law school.” She received a basketball college scholarship and a scholarship to attend law school. “That set me on my path,” she said.
Recognizing the impact of access, Rhoades co-founded the Latinas First Foundation 15 years ago with civic leader Juanita Chacon.
“Our first year, we hosted a luncheon for 110 women at the Governor’s Mansion and gave away one scholarship,” Rhoades recalled. Today the foundation’s annual October event draws more than 850 attendees, including about 200 students. To date, the organization has awarded over 500 scholarships to assist women pursuing higher education.
Rhoades said, “My advice to students is always: Find people who want to help you — they will — and who will pull you up and push you when you don’t feel like you can do it for yourself. You have to work hard, but you also have to put yourself in the path of luck and not be afraid to try.”