Suzanne Griffiths

Suzanne is a beacon of hope and a Godsend to my family at a time when our options were extremely limited and the likelihood of a satisfactory resolution seemed impossible. When I finally found Suzanne, 16 months had passed since I first served papers and I was on the verge of financial ruin. That Su...zanne would even take on my very complex and “snake-bitten” case, I will be eternally grateful. Suzanne, Duncan, Lisa and the rest of the Griffiths team are competent, compassionate, strategic, reputable, no-nonsense, highly skilled and intelligent experts in handling the most complex issues in difficult parenting and complicated business issues, taking into account the PRE, multiple business valuations, a vocational evaluation, house appraisals, analysis of rental properties and other investments, forensic accounting, etc. Suzanne and her team are adept in mediation, conducting depositions and masterful in trial work, and they will take care of you with much integrity and with very reasonable fees. They will not charge you an arm and a leg, although I would donate my kidney to them. Their services are worth much more than they charged. My family and I are forever grateful for their very hard work which resulted in an outcome that protects our future. I wholeheartedly recommend Suzanne and her firm. It is no wonder they are highly respected in the legal community. Suzanne and her team are the best family law practice in Colorado. Bar none.

The first thing I noticed upon meeting Suzanne was her spot-on analysis of the relationship dynamics and the complex financial situation of my case. She understands the psychology of cases and is able to clearly steer through potential hazards as well as analyze complicated finances, with the abilit...y to unearth anything under the radar or undisclosed. Having both the intuitive ability to understand motives and anticipate challenges, along with her tenacity and meticulous work, I find it hard to even imagine working with a better advocate. With her guidance, expertise and straightforward brilliance, Suzanne is invaluable and I will always appreciate her efforts in getting me the best possible outcome in a difficult situation.

Some people are masters at their job, Susan is one of them. From the moment I met her and until the moment my divorce was settled, she never steered me wrong. Her brilliance, expertise, and guidance were invaluable to me and my children. Susan's international reputation for guiding her clients throug...h high stakes divorce preceding is justified. X Vasilisa

First and foremost, I want to emphasize that litigation should be avoided at all costs . . . because the greatest cost will be your peace of mind for the years that it can take for a complex and contentious divorce to travel its way through the legal system. However, if you cannot avoid litigation, ...then there is no better lawyer to have on your side for a divorce. I had originally hired Suzanne's partner Sheila Gutterman, naively believing that I would be having a collaborative divorce. However, it quickly came to pass that there was no way to avoid litigation and Sheila handed my case off to Suzanne, to my initial shock and dismay. My case was a complex one involving substantial assets, including a privately held company co-founded by my ex-husband and I during the marriage, additional divorce related litigation initiated by my ex-husband in another state, and most importantly, three young children. I feel that I am highly qualified to rate Suzanne's performance as an attorney as I am one myself, and I have served as the general counsel of several companies, so I have had the opportunity to evaluate many attorneys over several decades. I can honestly say that Suzanne is in the 99th percentile of attorneys who I have worked with over the years. Suzanne knows Colorado family law backwards and forwards, but most importantly, she really understands people and their motivations. Suzanne has an uncanny ability to predict what may be coming down the pipeline and the crazy, erratic behavior that can occur in high conflict divorce cases. Suzanne's written work, in terms of motions and briefs, is of the highest caliber. She really gets to the essence of the issues, and dispenses with superfluous matters that simply clutter and confuse the argument. However, where Suzanne really shines is in depositions and in the courtroom. Suzanne has the ability to ask all of the right questions and make compelling arguments. She is able to think on her feet and change course, whenever necessary. I had the opportunity to see Suzanne in action for numerous hearings and over the course of a trial that lasted more than two weeks. Despite a grueling trial schedule, Suzanne was always on top of the issues and well prepared for each day at trial. My case was very complex with many different issues that needed to be resolved. Suzanne enlisted the aid of several of her colleagues to cover certain issues. They were also top notch attorneys and Suzanne remained involved and informed even when another attorney was handling different matters. Suzanne's paralegal, Lisa, is an absolute star. She is more capable than most attorneys. But where she really shines is in her ability to manage tens of thousands of documents and to always be able to find exactly what is needed at a given time. My trial involved dozens of boxes of files. Lisa was able to provide Suzanne with exactly what was needed in the midst of heated depositions and in trial. The financial outcome from my case was very fair and reasonable. But most importantly, Suzanne made a compelling case to protect the best interests of my children and I ended up with parenting orders that have given my children (and me!) peace and stability in the ensuing years. In addition to being very intelligent and hard-working, Suzanne is also very intuitive and compassionate (which might be a bit hard to uncover at first, given her very "no nonsense" exterior). But one quickly comes to realize that Suzanne is very astute about people and is genuinely concerned about the children in a divorce. She is highly ethical and has a great sense of humor, as well. Suzanne is probably the best attorney in Colorado to manage a high conflict and complex divorce case, particularly one that involves substantial assets with significant tracing and valuation issues. Divorce litigation should be a last resort, but if it is unavoidable, Suzanne is the attorney that you will want on your side.

I was told relocation cases are the most difficult and I now understand why. The parent wanting to relocate will often do and say anything to accomplish their goal, which is to take their children away from the other parent. The divorce process in this case necessitates an inter-related set of issu...es: divorcing, dividing assets, allocation of maintenance and child support, and of course the custody of the children. All of these issues are contentious enough on their own, much less when they are all so dependent upon each other (as relocation is essentially a winner-takes-all, or at least winner-takes-most custody issue). I did not appreciate how brutal the process of divorce was until I lived it, and what is clear is that there is a lot of expertise that goes into building a case. Suzanne proactively established a team of some of the best in their field- from psychologists, to evaluators, to financial consultants and more. They not only help give the best possible outcome, but they also helped me cope with what was an unbelievably difficult process. Having experts who know what to do, can tell you what to expect before it actually happens, and make you feel confident in yourself and the process- that is a tremendous asset. Of course the outcome of the divorce is what matters most, and I believe I could not have achieved a better outcome with any other attorney. In fact I am likely one of the very few who have gone through a divorce process and felt very satisfied with the outcome. The key things I wanted to accomplish were: 1.) keep custody of my children and ensure that they maintained as much of their prior life as possible (same school, friends, extracurricular activities, extended family, etc), 2.) preserve as much of my assets as possible and 3.) minimize the maintenance burden. In terms of outcome, the children maintained their life as much as possible, and they remain here. We actually convinced my ex to stay here and we share custody (it was either that or she was going to lose them). I believe this is the best possible outcome for the children. In terms of asset retention and maintenance, I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome of both of those. And in case anyone is wondering about child support, there is none in my case. Obviously a referral for divorce is something that you never want to have to give someone. However if you have someone you care about that is about to go through a divorce, the best thing you can do is give them the opportunity for the best possible outcome. If ever anyone I care about needs a divorce lawyer, I will direct them to Suzanne.