Celebrating Leadership and Community: Honoring CHBA’s 2026 Award Winners at En El Jardín

Jones Law Firm team attending the CHBA En El Jardín banquet at Denver Botanic Gardens

What’s Inside

Celebrating Leadership and Community: Honoring CHBA’s 2026 Award Winners at En El Jardín

Members of Jones Law Firm, PC recently spent a wonderful evening at the Denver Botanic Gardens for the Colorado Hispanic Bar Association’s annual En El Jardín banquet.

Surrounded by colleagues, judges, and law students, the event offered a welcome moment to celebrate the extraordinary depth of talent and commitment across Colorado’s legal community.

For our firm, gathering at En El Jardín is an essential annual tradition. As our founder, April D. Jones, prepares to take office as President of the Colorado Bar Association, supporting and collaborating with specialty bar organizations sits at the very heart of how we view legal leadership.

Why Specialty Bar Leadership Matters

A strong, fair judicial system depends on diverse perspectives, active mentorship, and genuine partnership across the bar. Since 1977, the Colorado Hispanic Bar Association (CHBA) has worked to elevate Hispanic legal professionals, advocate for equal justice, and fund scholarships for incoming law students through the CHBA Foundation.

When specialty bar organizations thrive, our courtrooms become more reflective of the communities we serve. As April prepares for her term as state bar president, maintaining close ties with organizations like CHBA remains a central priority. Building a better legal system requires showing up, listening, and celebrating the work being done across every corner of our profession.

Honoring 2026 Trailblazers Across Bench and Bar

The highlight of the evening was recognizing the remarkable leaders whose daily efforts strengthen Colorado’s courts, legal community, and public advocacy. CHBA presented its 2026 annual honors to:

Lifetime Achievement Award: Chief Judge Gilbert M. Román of the Colorado Court of Appeals. Requiring a two-thirds vote of quorum to bestow, this highest honor reflects Chief Judge Román’s lifetime of judicial wisdom, steady leadership, and dedicated mentorship on the appellate bench.
Chris Miranda Outstanding Hispanic Lawyer Award: Alessandra Morales, recognized for her professional achievements and her deep, ongoing commitment to serving the Hispanic community.
Outstanding New Hispanic Lawyer Award: Leonela Urrutia, honoring her early-career leadership, skill in the courtroom, and service to the profession.
Judicial Excellence Awards: Judge Isabel Pallarés, for her distinguished judicial service and dedication to advancing justice, and awarded posthumously to the Hon. André Rudolph, honoring his lasting legal legacy and community impact.
Organizational Community Service Award: GreenLatinos, recognizing their organizational advocacy for environmental justice and resource access for communities across Colorado.

Watching incoming law students receive CHBA Foundation scholarships was a powerful reminder of how bright the future of Colorado law is when we actively invest in pipeline mentorship.

Looking Ahead

Jones Law Firm was proud to stand alongside CHBA to celebrate this year’s honorees, scholarship recipients, and organizational leaders. We extend our warmest congratulations to all of the award winners, and we look forward to continuing our partnership with CHBA and specialty bars across Colorado in the year ahead.

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To learn more about our practice, firm values, or to schedule a confidential consultation with our legal team, visit Jones Law Firm, PC or call (720) 637-2623.

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B.H.

April and staff were wonderful.

“April and staff were wonderful. It made a difficult time of life softer while maintaining my dignity.”

J.A.

I will be recommending friends, family, and associates to Jones Law.

“When I needed legal assistance I emailed roughly a dozen law firms that came up in a Google search. Jones Law was the only firm that got back to me with a personalized message about my particular situation. When I arrived for my appointment I was greeted by Emily Sturgill to go over my case. Emily was awesome. She walked through my information & was very empathetic to my situation. I later met with David Collins to address my issue. David was great & completely understood what I wanted & gave me a very quick resolution. I will be recommending friends, family, and associates to Jones Law.”

M.C.

April always valued how I felt and what I wanted the outcome to be for the case.

“April Jones has represented me very well in my family court case. April always valued how I felt and what I wanted the outcome to be for the case. She understood my concerns and made sure they were kept on the forefront. I feel my cases outcome was positive for me and my family because of that. Thank you.”

S.H.

We can now open up another chapter of our lives.

“I went to Jones Law Firm, PC , needing help with my children’s custody case. April took my case, even though it was very short notice before the court date. Immediately April and all her staff members started gathering all the details and information from me to prepare for court. Daily April and/or her staff members were in contact with me for any updates on what was going on. I now have full custody of my two beautiful children. My family and I would like to say “Thank you so much” to everyone at the Jones Law Firm. We can now open up another chapter of our lives.”

A.E.

In the most difficult time of my life, April Jones was there for our family.

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S.C.

Not only did she do a FANTASTIC professional job, she was caring, understanding and most concerned in a manner that left me knowing and feeling I was safe!

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M.K.

Ms. Jones’ best quality as an attorney is her ability to take charge.

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Roswell

April settled my case literally out in the courthouse hallway.

“April settled my case literally out in the courthouse hallway.I had a landlord that failed to make promised repairs to my apartment. I was paying for a two bedroom,two bathroom place but only one bathroom worked. He said he would repair it when I moved in but 7 months went by and he was still making excuses. He lived in hawaii, the apartment was in california and he used that as his excuse. I decided to stop paying him until he fixed the bathroom I had BEEN paying for. After 3 months of that he arrived at my apartment and decided to take me to court rather than fix the bathroom and collect back rent which I had been holding onto. April negotiated a deal before we went into court for an immediate cash payment for 1 month and I could take a week to move out. My landlord accepted and a possible unlawful detainer ruling was avoided. I was able to use the 2 months rent I still had to find another apartment which would have been much harder to do with a unlawful detainer on my record.”

Alan

April is very knowledgeable of the law and will not let you down.

“I cannot be more happy with the April Jones Law Firm! I hired her in 2012 for disputes over child support and other items, we had to go to court 3 times on separate matters and every time we were successful. April is very knowledgeable of the law and will not let you down. If I ever need a family law attorney I will call April Jones.”