Arturo Hernandez

Judge Art Hernandez brings to the judiciary a variety of personal, life, and professional experiences that give him unique perspectives on many matters that appear before the courts.  Going into fourth grade, Judge Hernandez’s family moved to the U.S.’s mainland from Puerto Rico, and he was forced to accelerate his learning of English so that he could meet friends and advance in school.  He continues to be a fluent Spanish speaker.  To help with his personal finances while he was in high school and college, Judge Hernandez worked on the shop floors of two different metal fabrication companies.  He is the proud and supportive father of two children who are part of the LGBTQ community.  Not one to solely focus on law, Judge Hernandez seeks out challenging activities, and those experiences help him to connect with many who appear before him.  He is a licensed and instrument rated private pilot, and advanced open water SCUBA diver, a former competitive club-level motorcycle road racer, and he has “turned wrenches” as the crew chief of a professional motorcycle road racing team in the MotoAmerica racing series.      

Judge Hernandez retired as a Lieutenant Colonel from the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves in 2014 after having served for over twenty years as an Aviation Command and Control Officer.  He served on active duty for over 4 years before attending law school.  During his military career, Judge Hernandez played a part in real-world contingency operations, including conducting drug interdiction operations, participating in the evacuation of non-combatants from Liberia at the onset of that country’s civil war, and supporting combat operations in Iraq.  While deployed during Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), he simultaneously served as the Commanding Officer of a Marine Air Control Squadron and as the Commander of the OIF Marine Air Command and Control Group Detachment. 

Judge Hernandez began his legal career as a commercial litigator at Davis, Graham & Stubbs LLP, in Denver, Colorado.  Wanting to immerse himself into trial work, Judge Hernandez became a prosecutor and tried a wide variety of complex criminal matters as Deputy District Attorney in Denver and Adams County, Colorado.  For over eight years he was an Assistant U.S. Attorney, the last years of which he served as the Deputy Chief of the Major and Cyber Crimes Section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio.  Judge Hernandez also benefits from over eight years of corporate legal and leadership experience.  He developed the corporate ethics and compliance program for a multibillion-dollar, multinational, publicly traded company where he served as its Senior Director of Global Compliance and Corporate Counsel, and he was part of the leadership team, serving as the Vice President, General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer, and Corporate Secretary, of a company listed by Inc. magazine as being within the top 750 fastest growing private companies in America in 2020.  While working for the multinational company, Judge Hernandez travelled extensively and worked closely with many people from different cultures.  An interesting note is that in calendar year 2015 alone, Judge Hernandez travelled to every continent in the world, except Antarctica, working alongside corporate employees from each of the different countries he visited. 

Judge Hernandez has Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Juris Doctor, with Honors in Law, degrees from The Ohio State University.  While In law school he served as a Managing Editor of the Ohio State Law Journal; earned the American Jurisprudence Award for Civil Procedure and Order of the Coif Honors; and was the inaugural recipient of the Thomas E. Cavendish Scholarship.  Judge Hernandez is a member of the Colorado State Bar Association, Adams/Broomfield Bar Association, Colorado LGBT Bar Association, and the Colorado Hispanic Bar Association.      

Judge Hernandez was appointed by Governor Jared Polis effective January 23, 2024.