Associate

Overview

Kara Godbehere has experience in water litigation as well as assisting buyers, sellers and real estate brokers in completing due diligence and verifying title to water, mineral, and other property rights and ensuring the proper conveyance of such rights. She has worked with a wide variety of clients around the state on water/property transactions and litigation. Kara’s initial interest in water law was from the agricultural perspective, and her family still farms in northern Oklahoma.

• Education & Past Positions

  Kara received her B.A. with honors and a minor in political science from the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma, and her J.D. with a certificate in Resources, Environment and Energy Law from the University of Tulsa College of Law. Kara completed her third year of law school at the University of Colorado as a visiting student while clerking at a water litigation firm.

• Representative Matters

  Representative clients have included individuals, corporations, mutual ditch companies, real estate developers/brokers, municipalities/counties, special districts, school districts, farmers/ranchers, and ski resorts regarding their water and property needs. Kara has trial and hearing experience before Water and District Courts around the state, the Colorado Ground Water Commission, the Colorado Court of Appeals, Colorado Supreme Court, the United States District Court for the District of Colorado, and the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit.

• Organizations and community involvement

  Kara is an executive council member of the Colorado Bar Association's Water Law Section and co-chair of the Boulder Bar Association Real Estate Section. She also teaches Colorado Water Law and Water Rights Administration at Metropolitan State University of Denver, and volunteers at her son’s elementary school in the Boulder Valley School District.

• Publications/Seminars

  • May 12, 2011 – Colorado Bar Association Continuing Legal Education Speaker on “Water Right Title Basics."
  • February 18, 2016 - Boulder County Bar Association Continuing Legal Education Speaker on “Real Estate Contracts: Water Rights Considerations.”
  • April 7, 2016 – University of Denver Earth Day presentation panelist on “Water Planning & Denver Metro Growth.”
  • April 15, 2016 – Metro State University guest lecturer on “Water Rights: Title Considerations” for Colorado Water Law course.
  • May 24, 2016 – Frascona, Joiner, Goodman and Greenstein, P.C. private Continuing Legal Education presentation on “Real Estate Contracts: Water Rights Considerations.”
  • October 6, 2016-University of Denver Sturm College of Law guest lecturer on "Water Rights: Transactional Considerations."
  • November 17, 2016 - Panel moderator for the National Business Institute CLE "Colorado Water Court Forum", moderating and participating in a panel discussion with Water court judges and a referee.
  • October 6, 2016-University of Denver Sturm College of Law Water Law class guest lecturer.
  • June 9, 2017 – CLE International speaker on “Water Quality/Quantity Interplay in Colorado Water Law.”
  • September 28, 2017 - University of Denver Sturm College of Law Water Law class guest lecturer.

• Representative Published Cases

  • In re Water Rights of Central Colorado Water Conservancy Dist., 147 P.3d 9 (Colo. 2006).
  • Gallegos v. Colorado Ground Water Com'n, 147 P.3d 20 (Colo. 2006).
  • Board of County Com'rs of Gilpin County v. City of Black Hawk, 292 P.3d 1172, 2012 COA 172 (Colo.App.Div. 6 2012).

• Journal Publications

  Is the End of the War in Sight: an Analysis of Canada’s Decriminalization of Marijuana and the Implications for the Implications for the United States War on Drugs, 22 Buff. Pub. Int. L.J. 199 (2004).