As a lawyer, Amy E. Symons provides compassionate, thoughtful, and sensitive counsel to couples and individuals who are planning their legacy and to families who have recently lost a loved one. Since 2002, she has practiced law in the area of trusts and estates. Specifically, she has concentrated her practice in the areas of estate planning (wills, trusts, powers of attorney), estate administration (probate), trust administration, gift and estate tax, and charitable giving. Her clients are individuals who are dealing with what to do with a loved one’s property after their death, parents looking to establish guardianship for minor children, families who are contemplating how to transfer wealth to the next generation, professionals, business owners, seniors, people with charitable intent, and those contemplating end-of-life decisions.
Amy is a Denver native with Colorado ancestors who have been engaged in local business, journalism, ranching, and politics since the 1880s. She is a proud East High School graduate. She earned a B.A. in Psychology from the University of San Diego in 1996 and a law degree from The George Washington University Law School in 2002. After realizing the coasts had nothing on Denver, she opted to return home and, in 2008, earned a Master of Laws degree in taxation from the University of Denver Graduate Tax Program, where she has since taught Estate and Gift Taxation as an adjunct professor.
Amy formerly served on the Executive Council of the Trust and Estate Section of the Colorado Bar Association (CBA). She continues to serve on numerous Section committees, as well as Women’s Estate Planning Council, WOLF (Women Owned Law Firm), and the probate section of the El Paso County Bar. In addition to her practice area, Amy is passionate about the opportunities afforded to solo practitioners and small business owners. From 2013-2020, Amy was on the Executive Council of the CBA’s Solo-Small Firm Section and was Council Chair from 2018-2019. The Denver Business Journal named Amy to its “Forty Under 40 Class of 2014” recognizing her entrepreneurial leadership and individual community involvement. The following year, she was selected to participate in the Denver Metro Chamber’s Leadership Denver program and graduated with the class of 2015.
Recognizing how incredibly important lawyer well-being is to the profession and the community, Amy sat on the Colorado Supreme Court’s Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being. She is actively involved in the task force’s resulting pilot program addressing lawyer well-being and in the Colorado Attorney Mentoring Program (CAMP). She manages her firm’s well-being program and strives to improve the service and products provided to clients that result from healthier lawyering.
Amy has long been connected to serving the Denver and Colorado Springs communities and beyond. Her volunteerism has ranged from Big Brother Big Sister commitments since college, working with women and children in Kenya and India during a year sabbatical in 2005-06, and serving in chair, board, and volunteer positions for many local non-profit organizations.
Amy is married to a law professor. She and her husband enjoy travelling, gallivanting off to see their adult children, and naming their fur babies after Supreme Court Justices.
Experience
Education
Bar Admissions and Affiliations
Leadership in the Community
Volunteerism
Colorado Probate Law, Managing Partner, 2023 to present
Bryant Ritsick Symons & Ratner LLC, Partner, 2020-23
Symons & Ratner, LLC, Partner, 2016-20
The Law Office of Amy E. Symons, LLC, Founding Partner, 2009 to present
Sturm College of Law of University of Denver, adjunct professor, Gift & Estate Taxation, 2012-13
Holland & Hart LLP, Colorado Springs, Associate, 2008-09
Davis Graham & Stubbs LLP, Denver, Staff Attorney, 2006-08
Ross Marsh & Foster, Washington, DC, Associate, 2002-05, Law Clerk 2001-02, Summer Associate, 2001
Riggs Bank, N.A., Washington, DC, trust department summer associate, 2000
Sturm College of Law – University of Denver, LL.M. in Taxation, 2008
The George Washington University Law School, J.D., 2002
University of San Diego, B.A. in Psychology, 1996
Bar Admissions
- Colorado 2006
- Virginia 2002 (inactive)
- Washington, DC 2004 (inactive)
Affiliations
- Colorado Bar Association
- Trust & Estate Section
- Solo-Small Firm Section
- Denver Bar Association
- Probate Section El Paso County Bar Association
- Women’s Estate Planning Council
- WOLF – Women Owned Law Firms
Leadership in the Community
- Executive Council, Trust & Estate Section, CBA, 2020-22
- Colorado Supreme Court Task Force on Lawyer Wellbeing 2018-20
- Executive Council, Solo-Small Firm Section, CBA, Chair, 2017-18, Council Member 2013-20
- Leadership Denver, Class of 2015, Denver Chamber
- Junior League of Denver, Board Member/Bylaws Coordinator, 2014-15
- Forty Under 40, Class of 2014, Denver Business Journal
- Starlight Children’s Foundation, Executive Committee Member, 2012-13, Board Member, 2010-13, Advisory Board Member, 2009-13
Volunteerism
- Colorado Attorney Mentoring Program (CAMP), Mentor, 2018-present, Mentoring circles, 2020-2021
- CBA’s Statutory Revisions Committee, Committee work on CO community property laws, 2022-present
- CBA’s Orange Book, 2010-present, Committee drafting projects concerning special needs trusts, dementia provisions in medical directives, civil unions
- Project Homeless Connect, 2009-2015
- Junior League of Denver, 2013-2018
- Women’s Homeless Initiative, 2012-2014
- Starlight Children’s Foundation, 2008-2013
- Junior League of Colorado Springs, 2008-2013 Chair, Community Service Corps, 2009-10
- Amistad International, 2005-06 – During a year-long sabbatical to visit third-world countries, Amy had the unique opportunity to review projects with an eye toward reporting to sponsors and volunteering her time and energy with orphans in Nyalgunga, Kenya, students at Buddha’s Smile School in Varanasi, India, and at New Light, a support group and school for sex workers and their children in Kolkata, India.