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Practice Areas: Construction and Surety Law; Commercial Litigation; Securities Arbitration; Family Law

Additional Information: Laurin D. Quiat is a litigator who has acted as lead counsel in more than 80 jury and non-jury trials in Colorado and throughout the country, and in numerous arbitrations. His primary practice emphasis has been in the areas of construction, commercial, product liability, real estate and matrimonial law litigation, including appellate matters involving such areas.

Mr. Quiat has appeared in state and federal courts in Colorado, California, Arizona, Texas, New York, Michigan, Kansas, Nevada, Illinois, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Florida, Alabama, Utah and Ohio. He has also argued before the Colorado and Kansas Supreme Courts, and the U.S. Court of Appeals, for both the Federal and Tenth Circuits.

Mr. Quiat has over 26 years of experience in managing, resolving and trying complex civil matters. Over the course of time, Mr. Quiat has represented a variety of construction contract parties, including owners, developers, sureties, general contractors, engineers, specialty subcontractors and suppliers. The size and scope of the projects involved in Mr. Quiat’s representation of clients has ranged into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Mr. Quiat has significant experience with product liability cases. He regularly defends clients against allegations of product defects, often involving heavy equipment and industrial machinery. Most recently, Mr. Quiat represented the manufacturer of a steering cable system that was alleged to have been defectively designed, and unreasonably dangerous. Mr. Quiat defended the client in a multi-week jury trial in federal court in Colorado and obtained a defense verdict for the client on all issues. The case was appealed to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals and that Court affirmed the jury verdict in favor of Mr. Quiat’s client, and in doing so held that when a case involves primarily technical and scientific information, that the jury shall only be instructed in accordance with the more manufacturer friendly risk-benefit test. Mr. Quiat argued this case to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. Kokins v. Teleflex, Inc., 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 08-1272; Decided October 14, 2010 (published)

In the 2000’s, Mr. Quiat represented the owner of a Las Vegas resort on a project which involved damages in excess of $100,000,000. In the 1990’s, Mr. Quiat obtained (what was then) the largest jury verdict in Jefferson County, Colorado, on behalf of a construction surety client. In addition to recovering a judgment on behalf of the surety for an amount in excess of $1,000,000.00, Mr. Quiat successfully defeated a series of bad faith claims which had been asserted against his client.

For the past two decades, Mr. Quiat has represented high net worth individuals in matrimonial law matters. His extensive experience in resolving disputes regarding valuation issues has allowed him to provide effective counsel to clients in extremely stressful matters.

Mr. Quiat has extensive experience in leading litigation teams in both the prosecution and defense of complex civil matters. He devotes his personal attention to all phases of each case and strives to insure that each matter is handled in an efficient and streamlined manner.

Mr. Quiat is the coordinator of the litigation practice group for Baker Hostetler’s Denver Office. He also sits on the Denver Office’s Diversity Committee and eight member Executive Committee. He is a member of the American Bar Association (member, Forum Committee on the Construction Industry), the Colorado Bar Association (Construction Law Committee) and the American Arbitration Association.

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Firm Members: Paul Swedlund Cory Curtis