Jack Hanley wasn’t an attorney, but that hardly mattered in the grand scheme of things. Those who knew him said he was often mistaken to be an attorney by other attorneys — such was the magnitude of his particular gift as a law firm administrator. He knew what made attorneys tick and deeply resonated with and understood the joy of the practice of law.
Hanley died on March 27 at the age of 81.
When speaking with colleagues and friends of Hanley about his contributions to the legal community and about who he was as a person, they simply couldn’t say enough fast enough.
“Jack was not a lawyer, but I think a lot of people in the Denver legal community either thought he was or certainly treated him that way in a lot of respects,” said Fennemore Of Counsel Tony Giacomini. “Colorado, like a lot of states, [doesn’t] allow [nonlawyers] to be members of law firms. Jack really was an integral part of several important law firms in Denver.”
“Lawyers ran their own law firms for decades, but not always efficiently or effectively,” added Fennemore Director Dan Reilly. Reilly and Giacomini stressed that Hanley’s ability to help attorneys run successful firms and practices was only part of what truly engrained him in the local legal community. He was already well-known before he started working directly with firms from his time at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law starting in 1967.
There, he served as associate dean alongside Dean Robert Yegge, and later under Dean Daniel Hoffman. He spent 18 years at the university, starting the university’s master’s program in legal administration. Giacomini said that Hanley worked tirelessly alongside both deans to make the university a nationally recognized law school. From bringing in sitting judges and working trial attorneys to help teach the next generation of lawyers, to starting mock trials and offering courses at night to make the program more accessible for people working full time jobs, Hanley did it all.
In 1985, Hanley followed Hoffman to Holme, Roberts & Owen to serve as the firm’s administrative director until 1996 when he assumed the same role at McKenna & Cuneo, again with Hoffman and Reilly. In 2000, Hanley was instrumental in the formation of Hoffman, Reilly, Pozner & Williamson, which later became Reilly LLP. Reilly noted Hanley served as the firm’s executive director for 23 years and facilitated Reilly’s combination with Fennemore in 2020.
“We just got through COVID,” Reilly recalled. “We were near the end of it and I said, ‘Jack, you know, you don’t have to stick with me forever. If you want to retire, you can retire if you don’t want to stick around,’ and he said to me, ‘Dan, I’m going to be here ‘till I turn out the lights.’ And that was really who he was. And he did.”
Reilly explained Hanley put together all the financial information and the resumes for all the lawyers. He set up Zoom calls with Fennemore during the pandemic to talk to the firm about the dollars in and dollars out.
“He was just the master at being able to explain what kind of firm we were, what kind of lawyers we had,” Reilly said. “Jack and his wife, Barbara [Huff], kept on helping us shut down Riley LLP, which involved thousands of boxes and hundreds of clients, artwork, furniture, bank accounts, etc, and he didn’t really have to do any of that.”
Hanley leaving before the merger was completed was simply antithetical to who he was, Reilly explained. “He was a visionary who got things done,” Reilly said. “That’s really the distinction. There [are] a lot of visionaries — great thoughts, but, you know, taking it to finishing it, they might need somebody else to do it, and those folks are critical, the doers. He was the visionary doer.”
The same was true of Hanley’s other professional areas, not only did he blend the lines of maker and manager, Hanley always seemed to stay until the lights were off. He stayed at the university as an adjunct professor and lecturer for nearly 30 years and Reilly and Giacomini noted he often stayed late on Fridays at the firms he worked at.
“Friday afternoon, four o’clock, he’d send out an email and say, ‘Well, I’ve opened up some bottles of wine in the kitchen for whoever wants to come and join me.’ And sure enough, by the end of the evening, there are 30 people in the conference room talking about what went on during the week and what we’re going to do over the weekend. It was just a real sense of camaraderie,” Giacomini said.
Hanley was also an active member of the Association of Legal Administrators, serving as the president of the Mile High chapter for several years. He was elected a fellow of the College of Law Practice Management in 2000 and was a member of many community and nonprofit boards including the University of Denver Sturm College of Law Alumni Council and Disability Law Colorado.
A longtime member of the Denver Athletic Club, Hanley enjoyed court sports and served as president at the club from 1991 to 1992. He was also a staunch supporter of the Denver Broncos, having been a season ticket holder since the 1970s.
Born in Denver as the second son of Robert and Zarini Hanley, Hanley and his older brother Robert Hanley II and younger sister Sharon Hanley lived for several years with their maternal grandparents in Louisville, Colorado, following the untimely death of their father Robert Hanley.
Hanley attended boarding school at the Abbey of the Holy Cross in Cañon City, where he sang in the boys’ choir. He earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Colorado Boulder before briefly serving in the U.S. Air Force. Jack later earned his Master of Business Administration at the University of Denver.
Hanley is survived by his wife, Huff, sister Sharon Hanley, son Michael Hanley and daughter Kara Hanley. The family is planning a celebration of life on June 21 at 1 p.m. at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. To attend the celebration of life, please RSVP to [email protected].