Hutchinson Black and Cook is thrilled to announce that Lucy Kennedy Walker has become a partner of the firm. Lucy joined HBC in 2018 with her colleagues from Robinson Hungate, where her primary focus was in construction litigation. Prior to law school, Lucy worked in the energy industry, including two years in France working for a natural gas company.
Q: What does becoming a member of HBC mean to you?
A: HBC has some of the brightest, most creative lawyers in the country, and certainly in Colorado. Not to sound overly dramatic, but I’m truly honored to be invited to be a member of this firm. As an associate, I’ve been able to work with different lawyers in many different areas and I really feel like I’ve had agency in carving out the practice I want. It’s exciting and terrifying to be facing the product of that work in real time!
Q: Since joining HBC in 2018, what cases have had the biggest impact on you personally?
A: One of the things I’ve really appreciated about working at HBC is how I’ve been able to take on both traditional, hourly billable work and then also Title IX or victim representation contingency cases. The cases in this latter category are definitely some of the ones that keep me up at night worrying, but the wins stay with me here. Representing someone who has been traumatized by institutional discrimination – that feels good. I’m proud of that.
Q: How has your approach to law changed since you began your practice?
A: [Before I became a lawyer], I worked for an energy company on the strategic planning side. I would watch the lawyers work out these incredibly complex problems that involved everything from pricing that changed by the nanosecond to tariff issues to international politics. I wasn’t expecting to go into litigation when I started law school, but here we are! I think it's been a lot of learning the path that feels the best for me personally, balancing work and life, balancing litigation and deal-making, balancing learning and doing.
Q: What has been most rewarding to you in your law practice?
A: I enjoy digging deep into a nuanced legal question, and really spending the time researching and learning. Doing that work and presenting it to the court and then getting a positive ruling – that feels great.
Q: What is the best – or worst – career advice you ever received?
A: Worst: “Go into computer science.” I’d be terrible at that.
Q: What’s the hardest lesson you ever learned?
A: Sometimes, especially in litigation, you lose – even when you are 100% convinced you’re right and you’ve done everything you can to try to persuade the court to that end. Sometimes the judge decides against your client. No two ways around it, that’s really rough. It’s rough to explain to the client, rough to internalize the loss thinking of other arguments that could have been made. Sometimes it feels deeply unfair, but that’s the nature of the beast with litigation.
Q: What is a great book you’ve read recently?
A: I have 2 children under the age of four and more “extracurricular” commitments than I should, so I don’t have a ton of reading time these days. However, the coolest “book” purchase I’ve made of late was a bound copy of the sheet music for Handel’s Messiah. A friend talked me into joining a community sing for it this winter. The music arrived, and I could tell it was old. Turns out it was published in 1912. There are pencil markings from singers who used it before – both a soprano and a bass – makes you wonder how many hands it has been in. Safe to assume I'm the first woman who sings tenor who’s owned it!
Q: What makes HBC a good fit for you?
A: On a personal level, I’ve lucked out in that HBC is a lifestyle firm. Everyone who works here is a preeminent attorney in their respective legal field, but they want to be at HBC because they’re also committed ultramarathoners or musicians or followers of whatever other passion. I worked for a “big law” firm as a paralegal before law school, and every time I was there at 3 am trying to get a document production together, I’d be there with some hapless associate with pictures of their children on their desks. No regrets about not pursuing that life!
In litigation when you're on deadline, you work late to get it done, but at HBC that’s not the weekly norm. I want to be around for my kids’ childhoods, and I also really enjoy my commitments at the boxing gym and want to climb every 14er (that doesn’t require a climbing harness and ropes.) I wouldn’t be in Colorado if I wanted my job to define every aspect of my life.
HBC has really allowed me as an associate to focus on areas of practice that I wanted to explore. I think in a lot of law firms, young attorneys are slotted in where the needs of the firm dictate their career trajectories. I joined HBC as a construction attorney with aspirations on the Title IX side. When I made noise about wanting to get into employment law, superstar lawyers in that field were willing to take me under their wings. The result is that as I’m adding “member” to my resume, I have areas of practice that really are what I want to be doing.