Partner Denver Office 555 Seventeenth Street, Suite 3200 Denver, CO 80202-3979 Phone: 303-295-8229 Fax: 303-975-5435 acastle@hollandhart.com

PRACTICE AREAS

Regulatory and Natural Resources Water Quality Water Rights

Ms. Castle joined Holland & Hart LLP as a lawyer in 1981 and became a partner in 1987.  She is a practitioner in water rights and water quality law, and has over twenty-five years of experience in water rights practice.  She has represented a wide variety of clients in water court litigation, including adjudications of water rights, changes in water rights and plans for augmentation, and appeals.  She has also represented clients in numerous water rights and water quality administrative proceedings.  Her practice includes water rights conveyancing, contracts for purchase, use, and supply of water, and the evaluation and assessment of water rights.  She has worked extensively with special district issues, including water, sanitation, and metropolitan districts.  She has experience in water quality discharge permitting and wetlands regulation.  Her clients include many different types of water users, such as small and large municipal water and wastewater treatment providers, mining companies, ski areas, real estate developers, special districts, farmers and ranchers, lenders, and operators of industrial and commercial facilities.  She has been involved in obtaining recreational water rights authorized under Colorado statute.

Ms. Castle is the former Chair of Holland & Hart’s Management Committee (2002 to 2004) and former Chair of the firm’s Natural Resources Department (1998 to 2001).  In 2004, members of the Colorado Bar voted her the top water lawyer in The Denver Business Journal’s Best of the Bar survey.  She was a finalist for Outstanding Women in Business – Professional Services awarded by The Denver Business Journal in 2005.  She was designated “Best of the Bar” in Water Law in 2006 and 2007 and was listed in Best Lawyers in America for water law in 2007, the first year in which water law was a listed category.  Ms. Castle was appointed by Governor Ritter to the South Platte River Task Force in 2007.

PUBLICATIONS

“Federal Land Management Laws and Their Impact on Water Development in the West,” (with Lawrence J. Wolfe), 32nd Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Institute, 1986

“Prevention of Use of Contaminated Ground Water,” Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation, Special Institute on Ground Water Contamination, 1991

“Clean Water Act Interplay With The Endangered Species Act,” 24th Annual Conference on Environmental Law, 1995

“Property Rights in Water – Emerging Issues,” The Cambridge Institute, Colorado Water Rights in Conflict, 1997

“Transfers and Conveyances of Water Rights:  Evaluation, Due Diligence, and Forms of Conveyances,” Seminar on Water Rights for Real Estate Practitioners, Colorado Bar Association, Real Estate Section, 2002

“Guantanamo: How Should We Respond?” National Guantanamo Teach-In, University of Denver, Sturm College of Law, October 2006

“Constitutional Rights and the Judiciary in a Post 9-11 World,” Faculty of Federal Advocates, December 2006

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

Board of Directors, Colorado Legal Services (formerly Legal Aid Society of Metropolitan Denver) (1983 to present; Chair of Board 1991 to 1998)

Board of Trustees, Colorado Academy (2005 to present)

Board of Directors and Vice Chair, Colorado Lawyer Trust Account Foundation (COLTAF) (2006 to present)

Board of Trustees, Legal Aid Foundation of Colorado (1998 to 2004; Chair of Board 2002 to 2003)

Board of Directors, Public Education and Business Coalition (1998 to 2003)

Chair and elected member, Board of Directors, Genesee Water and Sanitation District (1989 to 2002)

Member, Colorado Ground Water Commission, appointed by Colorado Governor Roy Romer (1994 to 2002)

Member, Colorado Supreme Court Committee on the Rules of Civil Procedure (1991 to 1996)

Board of Trustees, Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation (1994 to 1995); Chair of Special Institutes on Water Issues:  Ground Water Contamination (1987) and Wetlands Regulation (1994)

EDUCATION

University of Colorado (J.D., 1981)
  Order of the Coif

University of Colorado (B.S., Applied Mathematics, 1973)
  With Honors
  Boettcher Foundation Scholarship