Laurie K. Dean

Judge Laurie Kazue Dean was appointed to the 8th Judicial District Court bench by Governor Polis on January 1, 2020.

Before her appointment to the bench, Judge Dean was Associate Legal Counsel at Colorado State University where she practiced employment law and general litigation.  She has also practiced criminal law as a Deputy District Attorney in the 8th Judicial District and appellate law as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Colorado.  She was in private practice earlier in her career with O’Melveny & Myers in San Francisco.  Judge Dean also served as a law clerk to the Honorable Lucy Koh in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California and to the Honorable Richard Clifton in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Judge Dean earned her Bachelor of Arts summa cum laude from Princeton University in 2003, and her Juris Doctorate from Stanford Law School in 2007.