Leonard I. Frieling
Attorney at Law, Former Judge

Education

Juris Doctor, Rutgers University Law School, Newark, 1975.  Bachelor of General Studies, Cum Laude, 1972.  Colorado attorneys are required to obtain 45 hours of continuing legal education (CLE) every three years. In a typical year, including teaching credits, I generally earn between 100 and 200 hours of CLE credit.

Bar Admissions & Memberships

• All Courts of the State of Colorado

• United States Supreme Court

• LEAP, Law Enforcement Action Partnership, Speaker

• NORML Legal Committee Life Member

• Colorado Criminal Defense Bar Life Member

• Colorado Municipal Judges Association, during this time, I sat on the bench for the City of Lafayette, Colorado, including serving on their Board of Directors. I taught a session on Cannabis Law to this group.

• Of Counsel to Imhoff & Associates based in Los Angeles, California, and Colorado Counsel for the firm, having been invited to join when the firm was The Cochran Firm, under Johnnie Cochran.

Board & Chair Positions

• First Chair and creator of the first state bar association Cannabis Law Committee. Liaison to other states following the Colorado example in setting up state bar association CLC committees.

• The Colorado Lawyer Board of Directors 7/2014 for several years. Criminal Law Article co-editor for a number of years with Judge Morris Hoffman.

• Colorado NORML Board Member Emeritus

• Colorado NORML Executive Director 9/2011 for many years. Served once by election and once by request of NORML National Leadership. Board of Directors for many years

• Former Associate Judge, City of Lafayette, Colorado, for 8 years

• NORML.org Life Member, NORML Legal Committee, Life Member

• Twice Chair, 2004-2005, 2005-2006, Executive Council, Criminal Law Section, Colorado Bar Association. Sitting on this board is an extremely high honor. No one else has chaired it twice, consecutively. I was elected unanimously.

• Colorado Criminal Defense Bar Board of Directors (completed a two-year term ending June 2001, and elected to a new term starting June 2003)

• Life Member of the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar.

• Colorado Municipal Judges Association, Board of Directors (completed a two-year term). Currently a presenter for ongoing legal education.

• Boulder Criminal Defense Bar, Past Chair, 8 years service, from 1996 to 2004).

• Colorado Center for Modern Psychoanalytic Study, Board of Directors (retired from the board after 9 years)

• Original Webmaster of Jeralyn Merritt's fantastic legal information blog site, Crimelynx

• Served as liaison from Colorado Criminal Defense Bar Board to the Colorado Death Penalty Resource Center for two years. I created that liaison position.

• Public Education and Law Committee, Boulder County Bar Association, 1997-2002.

• Boulder County Bar Association, past member of the Board of Directors, served five years.

• Victim and Law Enforcement Board (VALE), charter member, served three years, function of the VALE Board is to distribute victim services grants.

Lecturer

• Co-Host on Time4Hemp Radio Show 2015 for many years, weekly.

• Guest lecturer, over many years, Univ of Colorado, Boulder Campus, Global Studies Academic Program, Caroline S. Conzelman, Ph.D.

• Multiple appearances on Hawaiian Radio/Internet Show Jeff Davis the Solar Guy

• I gave a presentation on DUI marijuana at the DPA International Reform Drug Policy Conference in Denver, October 2013. I made a presentation as a LEAP speaker for a large gathering of the SSDP (students for a sensible drug policy) at the Auraria campus of the University of Colorado in addition to my many dozens of other LEAP presentations for LEAP.

• On-Demand legal consultant for the Boulder Daily Camera on a variety of topics

• Driving Under the Influence of Cannabis, Colorado Criminal Defense Bar, 2011 DUI conference, Keystone, Colorado

• Kansas Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, “Prosecutorial Ethics” followed by “Advanced Cannabis Motions.” May 2011. This was my second presentation for this group of Kansas defense attorneys.

• Panel, NORML National Conference, Denver, April 2011, “Police Encounters.”

• University Of Colorado, Boulder, LEAP presentation on the failure of the “war on drugs.” March 2011

• Cannabis Law Update, June 2009, for the Boulder Criminal Defense Bar

• Lorman CLE, Search and Seizure Law update and trends, December 2008

• Math and Sicence, including graphing, privately to groups for attorneys to help talk to forensic experts, many times over decades including for the Colorado Bar Association, October 31, Halloween, 2008. This one was done in costume, with the help of my wife, Debi Dodge, as the Sorcerer and the Sorcerer's Apprentice.

• Colorado Bar Association, March 2008, Criminal Law Update, (program chair and presenter).

• Kansas Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, March 2008, presenter at their Spring Conference, Lawrence, Kansas, as my first presentation for this group, by invitation.

• Colorado Bar Association, February 2007, DUI Motions Practice. I assisted in designing the entire program on DUI law.

• NORML, June 2006, Aspen, Colorado, (ethics and investigation). This is only one example of the presentation I have made to the NORML Legal Committee, as well as one of the several times I have moderated portions of these conferences.

• December 2006, Key West, Florida, (Advanced Motions Practice)

• CLE International (July 15, 2005) Advanced DUI Motions

• Various police agencies, "mountain" counties, How to Write A Search Warrant"

• Denver University School of Law, criminal law clinic. Lectures on negotiation techniques and strategy, and criminal defense ethical considerations.

• 3rd Annual Public Defender Las Vegas Retreat to a National audience in Nevada, March 28-30, 2003. "How to Win Every Case." March 2004, 4th Annual Public Defender Retreat, on General Criminal Legal Ethics as well as on Sentencing Techniques and Ethics.

• 2nd Annual Public Defender Retreat, Las Vegas, "Effective Negotiating Techniques, or "How to Win Every Case Every Time."

• Ethical Handling of Evidence by the Criminal Defense Attorney, or "What to do with the smoking gun." December 2003

• Sex Assault Post Conviction Remedies; A Creative New Approach

• Internet investigative tools for death penalty investigators, and paralegals

• How To Win Every Case (sponsored by the Boulder County Bar Association)

• Child Sex Assault Allegations in the Divorce Context (sponsored by the Interdisciplinary Committee on Child Custody)

• Domestic Violence Restraining Orders and No Contact Orders: The Criminal Defense Perspective (summer, 1999, Glenwood Springs 9th Judicial District)

• "Gadgets" For The Computer and Law Office for the Colorado Bar Association Solo Practice Committee.

• Internet Investigation Tools for the Defense Attorney, December 2000 in Key West, invited by the NORML Legal Committee.

• Use of Fairy Tales in the Treatment of Incest Victims, 1988, Amsterdam (presentation by invitation)

Author

I wrote a regular column in the RAP SHEET, the publication of the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar for several years, and have regularly published articles on legal and non-legal topics.

I worked as co-editor, with Judge Morris Hoffman, ongoing editor of the Colorado Lawyer criminal law articles for over five years.

Published Articles Include:

• Book review of Colorado DUI Defense: The Law and Practice published in the March 2014 Colorado Lawyer.

• E-mail Etiquette; a multi-part series being published in several places including the Colorado Lawyer and the Docket, Denver Bar Association.

• "How to Stay Married" to an attorney was published in March, 2005, in The Docket, a publication of the Denver Bar Association.

• Scientific and Other Expert Testimony, Daubert, Kumho Tire Co., and Colorado Rules of Evidence 702 and 403. (The Rap Sheet)

• Courtroom Etiquette (Colorado Lawyer)

• Firearm Rights and Criminal Defense (The Rap Sheet)

• Alcohol-Related Driving Offenses: Some Basics

• The Federal Aviation Administration and Your Client (co-authored with J. Scott Hamilton)

• The Dilemma of the [child abuse] Reporting Statute

• Tuberculosis in the Prison System

• He is working to complete a self-help psychology book, "Gista Bista," started and inspired by his late father, Ed Frieling. A "pre-publication" self published edition was given to family members as a gift on what would have been his Dad's 80th Birthday in January, 2005. (Gista Bista translates from Yiddish to "he who gives, is."

Honors & Awards

• Honored in 6 Famous Boulderites You Should Know. Click here to read the article!

• 2017 NORML Distinguished Counsel's Circle. For his years of work with the marijuana legalization efforts nationally and in Colorado, Lenny was awarded the “Distinguished Counselor’s Circle” recognition by the NORML Legal Committee on 12-9-2017. This is one of the highest awards given by the NORML Legal Committee, of which Lenny is a life member.

• 2011 to present, Colorado Super Lawyer

• Cicero Award of Excellence for 2011, for demonstrated effectiveness and distinction in my field (American Biographical Institute)

• Martindale-Hubbell AV and Preeminent Lawyers (highest possible rating) attorney rating.

• Courage Under Fire award for political activism, from SAFER and SENSIBLE Colorado.

• Nominated three times for the Olom Award, the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar's highest honor.

• National Register of Who’s Who

• Global Directory of Who’s Who

• Who's Who in American Law.

• His big horn sheep photograph appeared on the cover of the June 2007 Colorado Lawyer, the monthly publication of the Colorado Bar Association in addition to two other cover photographs.

• He has also guest performed on lead guitar with The famous Boulder Fornikators, Patrick and the Dinosaurs, and with a number of other bands over the years in various states.

• During the NORML Legal Committee conference in Aspen, June 2006, he played with Jimmy Ibbotson (formerly of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band) both on the patio of the Woody Creek Tavern, and the following afternoon at Owl Farm, home of the late Dr. Hunter S. Thompson.

• Volunteer of the Year, 1995, Boulder Action for Soviet Jewry

• Lafayette Art Show, third place watercolor, 1995

• Critter Crunch Table Top Battle Robots, 1st place, 1993, 3rd place 1994, "Nifty Critter" award, 1996.

• Leonard has been nominated for Lawyers of Distinction, for publication in the New York Times and the National Law Journal. While I refuse to "pay to play," the nomination cannot be bought, and only paying them is needed to be published. I am nominated, meaning I have been successfully vetted. From their literature, "¹Lawyers of Distinction Members have been selected based upon a review and vetting process by our Selection Committee utilizing U.S. Provisional Patent # 62/743,254. The platform generates a numerical score of 1 to 5 for each of the 12 enumerated factors which are meant to recognize the applicant’s achievements and peer recognition. Members are then subject to a final review for ethical violations within the past ten years before confirmation of Membership. Nomination does not guarantee membership and attorneys may not pay a fee to be nominated. Attorneys may nominate their peers whom they feel warrant consideration. The determination of whether an attorney qualifies for Membership is based upon the aforementioned proprietary analysis discussed above." In other words, I have been selected, cannot purchase the nomination (passing the vetting process) and if I am willing to pay them, I would have my name published in their list. ONLY paying remains, which I will not do as a matter of principle. I am however proud to have successfully passed their strict vetting process.