Jonathan Shamis

Before being appointed, Judge Shamis was Executive Director of Alpine Legal Services, where he practiced family law, real estate law, collections, protection orders and criminal law. Previously, he was a Partner at Fahrenholtz, Kleinschmidt, Stephens and Shamis, where he practiced in the 5th and 9th District Courts. From 1989-1997, he was a Senior Attorney and Assistant Public Defender in the Office of the Cook County (Ill.) Public Defender. Prior to graduation from law school, Judge Shamis directed the Illinois Ethnic Consultation.  He teaches as an adjunct faculty member at Colorado Mountain College in their paralegal program..

Judge Shamis earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago and a J.D. from the DePaul University College of Law.

In his previous capacity as Lake County Judge, Shamis served as president of the Colorado County Judges Association from 2018-2019.  He  chairs the Mental Health Subcommittee of the Supreme Court Committee on Judicial Education and co-chairs the Judicial Wellness subcommittee of the Colorado Task Force on Attorney Wellness.  Shamis also serves on the Bridges Mental Health Program Statewide Steering Committee, the Colorado State Mental Health Diversion Program Funding Allocation Committee, the Colorado Collaborative Justice Courts Training and Educational Subcommittee and heads the Rural and County Track planning committee for the Annual State Judicial Conference. 

Shamis sits on the Conference of Chief Justices/National Center for State Courts Judicial Advisory Committee on Competency, and sits on the National Center for State Court’s Task Force on Judicial Education in Mental Health  With Chief Disciplinary Judge William Lucero and Attorney Regulation Counsel Jessica Yates, Shamis presents to en bancs statewide on attorney professionalism encouraging judges across the state to adopt a standard professionalism order.  He has also developed a pilot program for remote mediation in rural jurisdictions.

Shamis is a Commissioner on the Colorado Suicide Prevention Commission and serves on the Governor’s Long-Term Competency Task Force.  He is Chairman of the Board of the Cloud City Conservation Center and is also on the Board of the Lake County Community Fund and the Board of the Hope Center, a crisis response organization.

Judge Shamis was appointed to the District Court bench, effective March 3, 2023.