David Kaplan chuckles at the thought.
Although a New Jersey native, he found skiing in Colorado easy and fun.
“I’m a Vermont-trained skier,” Kaplan said recently. “If you learn how to ski on the ice of the East, you actually look pretty good when you hit the soft stuff here.”
For observers, Kaplan looks pretty good at something else: his job as Colorado’s public defender. His mission: defense of the state’s poor.
Kaplan, 51, recently was reappointed to his second five-year term, overseeing 420 people, including 245 lawyers in 21 offices.
He wins praise from all quarters for his handling of a job that is demanding and stressful for himself and the public defenders who daily walk into courtrooms where they aren’t always appreciated by clients.
“I have a great deal of respect for David and the way he has managed his office,” said former Denver District Attorney Bill Ritter.
“The criminal justice system is a system where people can find a lot of common ground even if they are adversaries. We have fought a number of fights together.”
Kaplan’s longtime friend and former law partner Jeff Pagliuca said that when they met in law school, their peers were trying to figure out what kind of law they wanted to practice.
But that wasn’t true of Kaplan, Pagliuca said. Kaplan always wanted to be a public defender, he said.
“He is a dedicated defense lawyer and dedicated to the public defender system,” Pagliuca said.
Kaplan, known for his outgoing nature, knew at age 12 that he wanted to be a defense lawyer.
His mom was either dragging him to the library or coming home with an armful of books for him to read, he said.
And in his browsing, he read the books of two brilliant defense attorneys – Louis Nizer and F. Lee Bailey.
“I thought that there was something exciting about representing a person against the power of the government,” said Kaplan, who was student-body president of West Orange High School in West Orange, N.J.
“Being a criminal defense lawyer lets you be what in the British system is called the ‘loyal opposition.’ The thing that drove me toward this job was a way to be a part of the system while fighting the system,” Kaplan said.
Kaplan was so well known and liked that cheers went up in the Denver public defender’s office when the announcement of his appointment was made in 1999.
Kaplan’s respect for those who work for him knows no bounds. He thinks he has the best career because of his associates.
“You can’t work with a more collegial, more supportive and more dedicated group than those who are Colorado state public defenders,” Kaplan said.
“When you are surrounded by people who sacrifice their family time, recreational time, vacation time dedicated to the least fortunate in our society … where else would you want to make a living?”
Bob Grant, former Adams County district attorney, said Kaplan is easy to get along with and lets you know where he stands.
“He puts it on the table … and that’s respected,” Grant said. “Overall the tensions are less (between prosecutors and public defenders) now than toward the end of his predecessor’s regime and that is in some part due to David.”
Howard Pankratz can be reached at 303-820-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.
