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LONGMONT, Colo. — Lyons Gaddis is pleased to welcome Ellie Mills to the firm as an Associate Attorney on the Special Districts team.
A Colorado native, Ellie earned her Juris Doctor from Gonzaga University School of Law, where she ranked in the top 10% of her class, received the CALI Award for Excellence in Evidence, and served on the Dean’s Student Advisory Council. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science, with a minor in French, from the University of Colorado Boulder.
Throughout her education and early career, Ellie was drawn to organizations working behind the scenes to strengthen communities. Before law school, she worked for a nonprofit grantmaking foundation focused on the health and wellbeing of families and children in Colorado. She helped build and facilitate community initiatives, promoted the work of local organizations, and developed an appreciation for those who serve the public. It gave her a direct look at how much organizations across the state do for their communities.
That interest carried into law school, where Ellie was an active member of the Gonzaga Public Interest Law Project, which funds grants for law students in unpaid public service roles. As Co-President of the Women’s Law Caucus, she helped the school’s largest student organization earn Club of the Year in both years under her leadership, and founded an attorney-student mentorship program that paired more than 50 local female attorneys with over 120 law students. Under her leadership, the club’s annual awards ceremony, a Gonzaga Law tradition for more than three decades, was renamed in honor of retiring Washington Supreme Court Justice Barbara Madsen, who helped found the club 34 years earlier.
Ellie’s favorite law school experience was her time in Gonzaga’s Office of General Counsel, where she advised institutional leaders and decision makers, drafted policies, and fostered trusting client relationships. There, she found she thrives in the role of trusted advisor and loves taking part in strategic decisions. She also gained client-facing experience in Gonzaga’s Environmental & Climate Change Clinic, led by two former Department of Justice attorneys. In the clinic, she assumed a leadership role among a student-driven team working through the pre-litigation stages of a complex real estate and environmental dispute. She helped plan strategy, interviewed clients, and negotiated directly with adverse parties.
“Ellie’s experience advising decision makers and her community-focused background are a natural fit for the work we do with special districts and local communities,” said John Chmil, Shareholder. “We’re excited to have her on the team and provide our clients with another exceptional resource as they navigate everything that makes local government unique.”
Outside the office, Ellie frequently visits the Black Canyon, where her parents, brother, and two dogs have relocated. Raised by a lifelong gearhead, she keeps busy with a Jeep Wrangler that is both intentionally and unintentionally a project car, and spends the snowy months snowmobiling rather than skiing. She follows just about every sport, claims to be a mediocre chef, and often stays up late binge-reading any fiction she can get her hands on.
“We’re delighted to welcome Ellie to Lyons Gaddis and look forward to watching her grow with the firm.”
