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The University of Colorado Law School is pleased to announce that Professor Helen Norton will be the speaker for the Colorado Law Class of 2026 commencement recognition ceremony.Ìý

Helen Norton is University Distinguished Professor and Rothgerber Chair in Constitutional Law at the University of Colorado School of Law. Her scholarly and teaching interests include constitutional law (especially First Amendment and equal protection law), and antidiscrimination law. Before entering academia, Professor Norton served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Justice, on President-elect Barack Obama's transition team, and as Director of Legal and Public Policy at the National Partnership for Women & Families. She currently also serves as Deputy Solicitor General on Constitutional and Civil Rights for Colorado's Attorney General.ÌýÌý

She has been honored with the Excellence in Teaching Award on multiple occasions and appointed as a University of Colorado Presidential Teaching Scholar. Her work has been published by Cambridge University Press, Duke Law Journal, Northwestern University Law Review, Stanford Law Review Online, and the Supreme Court Review, among others.Ìý

In addition to Professor Norton’s remarks, Colorado Law will also present an Honorary Order of the Coif to a member of the legal community. The English Order of the Coif, an ancient and honored institution of the Common Law, was an association of distinguished lawyers appointed by the Judges of the Court of Common Pleas. For centuries, they had the exclusive right to be barristers in that Court. The American Order was formed in 1911 for the purpose of promoting scholarship among law students.Ìý

The University of Colorado Law School, one of the 87 member law schools, became a member of the American Order of the Coif in 1942. Under the Order’s constitution, only the top 10% of the school’s graduating class is eligible for membership. Dean Lolita Buckner Inniss has selected Chief Justice Monica Marquez as the 2026 Honorary Order of the Coif Recipient.Ìý

was appointed to the Colorado Supreme Court in 2010 by Governor Bill Ritter, Jr. She began her term as Chief Justice in July 2024. Before joining the Court, Chief Justice Márquez served as Deputy Attorney General at the Colorado Attorney General’s Office, where she led the State Services section in representing several state executive branch agencies and Colorado’s statewide elected public officials. Chief Justice Márquez also served as Assistant Solicitor General and as Assistant Attorney General in both the Public Officials Unit and the Criminal Appellate Section. Before joining the Attorney General’s Office, Chier Justice Márquez practiced general commercial litigation and employment law at Holme Roberts & Owen, LLP.Ìý

Chief Justice Márquez is a member of the American Law Institute, the American Bar Association, the Colorado and Denver Bar Associations, the Colorado LGBT Bar Association, the Colorado Hispanic Bar Association, and the Colorado Women’s Bar Association. She has also served as chair of the Colorado Supreme Court’s Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being. Before joining the Court, Chief Justice Márquez served on the boards of multiple bar associations and the Latina Initiative, as well as Chair of the Denver Mayor’s LGBT Commission.Ìý