Conversations with the Inspiring Britton Nohe-Braun

Today we’d like to introduce you to Britton Nohe-Braun.

Britton, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Here’s my story, it’s a little long but I hope you’ll bear with me.

I’m Britton, a Colorado native born and raised in Colorado Springs. As someone who was “indoorsy” and preferred big cities and late nights to mountain towns and morning hikes, I could not wait to move out east after high school and join the cosmopolitan ranks in a big city. Much to my parent’s dismay, I exclusively applied to East Coast schools, in-state “safety” school be damned. Fortunately, I got into the George Washington University and received a generous academic scholarship that made it financially possible for my middle-class parents to send me there. After college and a few years working in D.C., I moved to New York City and went to law school with dreams of a career as a high-profile lawyer at a fancy law firm with the money to afford a house on Central Park.  Motivated by this dream, I worked as hard as I could during law school and scored a coveted internship at a big firm and then a job at the firm after graduation, completing step one of my plan to be a big fancy lawyer. As it turned out, the path to big, fancy lawyer-dom was not as cut and dry as I’d hoped. The path was paved with seemingly impossible expectations – 24/7 availability, work every weekend, mean bosses and drudgery.

After slogging along this path for a few years, I began to miss my family, the mountains, and the Colorado lifestyle that I had taken for granted growing up. Following my instinct, I found a job at a law firm in Denver, packed up my cat and headed home to Colorado. Right after I moved home, the impossible happened: Donald Trump was elected President.  His message of division, distrust and lack of empathy for immigrants, minorities, and the impoverished seemed at odds with my values and our country’s values. Though I had gone out and voted, I felt like I could have done more and should have done more to stand up for what I believed was right. I guess I had just grown complacent, but the election of President Trump was a wake-up call for me.  With that in mind, I made two resolutions over New Years’ 2016, one for others and one for myself: (1) I would use my legal education to advance women’s rights and work to ensure access to justice for all and (2) I would overcome a lifetime of self-doubt about my physical strength and toughness and learn to ski and climb mountains.

Over the past two and a half years, I’ve diligently worked towards achieving these goals and learned a lot about myself and the power of conviction along the way. Working at a big law firm, I had to get creative to find time to get outdoors and opportunities to effect change within the legal system. About two years ago, my former colleague and now Colorado Court of Appeals Judge, the Honorable Lino Lipinsky, brought me to the annual fundraising dinner for the Colorado Judicial Institute (“CJI”), which supports Colorado’s merit-based judicial system and judicial excellence through education, outreach, and judicial scholarships. Having lived in New York where some judicial positions are filled through partisan elections, I was well aware of the woes of judges fundraising and campaigning for their seat on the bench – not to mention that political selection of judges to the U.S. Supreme Court.  I was also moved by the organization’s commitment to honoring and recognizing judges in our community at the annual awards ceremony and through the award of judicial scholarships. I knew that I had to be involved and asked Lino what I needed to do. Lino, who has been central to much of my professional growth, introduced me to Barbara Randell, the incoming chair of CJI’s board of directors. Randell, who quickly became one of my friends and mentors, asked me if I would help form a young professionals committee to increase awareness of CJI’s mission to students, young lawyers, and up-and-coming professionals. Knowing how few young Colorado voters were familiar with the process for selecting and retaining judges, this seems like a great opportunity to make a difference.

In August 2018, with the help of two other young professionals, we formed a nine-person committee made up of our friends and friends of friends with a mission of increasing awareness of CJI’s mission and getting young professionals engaged with the judiciary. Unsure where to start and in agreement that young professionals liked getting drinks after work, we decided to throw a pre-election happy hour for young professionals and ask judges to mingle with the young professionals, talk about Colorado’s merit-based judicial selection system, and walk attendees through the judge section of the ballot.  We initially planned for a small gathering of 30-50 people and had begged funding from our law firms to cover the cost of the event. Within the first 24 hours of posting above the event, we had 75 RSVPs. We ended up begging our firms and friends and supporters for more money and moved the event to the swanky Crimson Room on Larimer Street. We had over 125 people show up and by all accounts, the event was a great success. Now that we had some street cred, we organized another large event in February. In hopes of attracting a new crowd of people, we partnered with Opera Colorado and the University Club, who were also seeking to increase young professional involvement. The second event ended up being an even greater success and featured performances by Opera Colorado’s Artists in Residence and was hosted at usually closed-to-the-public University Club.

Since then our committee has grown to 13 members and a waitlist of young professionals eager to join our committee next year when we open up applications for new members. We’ve recently organized a couple of small events, including hosting a tent at City Park Jazz. We have has also partnered with Our Courts to provide training to high school students to teach the next generation of voters about Colorado’s judicial system. We are gearing up for a big event this summer at the Dairy Block where we are planning a dunk tank with judges and Colorado state representatives and expect a crowd of several hundred young professionals.  In the fall, we are planning the second annual pre-election event at the Crimson Room. I am honored to now be the chair of the Young Professionals’ Committee, which is a formal CJI committee. In recognition of our hard work, I was recently appointed to CJI’s Board of Directors and am currently supporting the organization’s overall fundraising and event planning efforts. Being a part of CJI is a step towards my goal of ensuring access to justice for all. Our events introduce Coloradans to their judges in informal settings and teach young professionals and students about Colorado’s phenomenal judicial system.

As a white-collar attorney working at a major law firm, I am in a heavily male-dominated field and have experienced firsthand some of the struggles that women face in the workplace. Reflecting on my goal of protecting women’s rights, I thought about what I could do to help other women attorneys and advocate for our rights and equal opportunity for advancement to senior leadership. Shortly after I joined my firm, the sole female partner in the Denver office left, leaving me – a mid-level associate – as the most senior woman in our Denver office.  I took my role as the most senior (but still very junior!) attorney very seriously, organizing women’s events for the other associates and becoming involved with my firm’s national women’s program. Last December, Lino, who seems to always pop up when I need him, asked me to help organize a #metoo roundtable discussion at our office. It turned out that the roundtable organizer was a non-profit from NYC that provided legal assistance to underprivileged women that I had volunteered for a lot when I lived in NYC. The purpose of the roundtable series was to bring together senior attorneys and c-suite executives (e.g., people who can effect change within their own corporations and law firms) for an off-the-record discussion of sexual harassment and abuse within the workplace and what lawyers and corporations can do to prevent and resolve these horrible but commonplace occurrences. The event turned out to be a success and I stayed in touch with the organizers in hopes of collaborating with them in the future.

A few months later, the organizers reached out to me about a subsequent roundtable that they were hosting in San Francisco at Uber’s headquarters.  I volunteered to come to San Francisco to help out and talked my firm into sponsoring a dinner for the organizers the night before the roundtable. The energy at the roundtable in San Francisco, kicked off Uber’s new General Counsel Tony West, was so powerful. I was blown away by some of the simple, but effective things that companies could do to improve the workplace and guard against #metoo issues, such as requiring at least two women and people of color be considered for each open position (the “Rooney” Rule), assigning men in the positions of power to mentor young women, and designating a woman in every office as someone victims can report claims to.  I volunteered to continue to help organize the roundtables across the country and help out however I could. We’ve since hosted a roundtable in Washington, DC at 3M’s headquarters and are planning discussions in LA, New York, and Denver this fall.

What’s been incredible is that these roundtables aren’t just talk.  We’ve seen real-world changes in major corporations implemented by leaders from these companies that attended one of the roundtables. A number of companies have stopped requiring employees to sign mandatory arbitration agreements that silence victims of sexual harassment and allow bad actors to go unpunished. Other attendees have reported more robust reporting channels for victims and commitments to increase the number of women and minorities in positions of leadership.

Our roundtables have reached several hundred leaders of Fortune 500 companies and top law firms across the nation, forming something of a national brain trust on workplace harassment and discrimination and how we can tackle these issues. Our team is now planning to take the ideas that have come out of the roundtables and turn them into a white paper of best practices and a road map for companies to improve their handling of #metoo issues.

Galvanized by the success of the #metoo roundtable series, I wanted to use what I learned at these discussions to try to tackle these challenges in Denver.  A subtle but important challenge is how do we meaningfully increase opportunities for young women rise to positions of leadership? It’s great to increase the number of women in a business or law firm, but an important next step to giving these women the tools and a pathway to leadership within the organization.  In reflecting on what frequently gives men more opportunity than women to advance, it occurred to me that men may have more access and exposure to powerful people (generally older white men) within the organization who can teach them soft skills, advocate for their advancement, and help them to develop key business relationships (frequently with other older white men).  To counter this advantage, I partnered with women from an accounting firm (another heavily male-dominated field) to organize a networking event to connect senior women leaders in our community with up-and-coming women professionals so that young women can develop relationships with women in positions of power who can open doors for them and provide mentorship.

The invite to the event, which we called “Women on the Rise,” went out to a number of women business leaders, judges, attorneys, and politicians in the Denver area. The invitation asked that each woman bring a young professional woman with them so she could begin to develop her network.  The event is scheduled for June 19th and we are expecting over 50 guests divided almost 50/50 between women leaders and up-and-coming women professionals. Based on the interest to date, we are hoping to hold these events on a regular basis and continue to expand the group by inviting women leaders and asking them to bring young women into the fold.

My final professional endeavor to fulfill my goal to increase access to justice for all has been to perform hundreds of hours of pro bono (volunteer) legal work. I have assisted on a case representing a victim of police brutality and am currently representing a man convicted of bank robbery serving a 36-year prison, appealing his conviction and challenging the length of the sentence.  As a result of my extensive pro bono work, I was recently appointed to my firm’s national Pro Bono Committee. In this role, I am working to identify nonprofits in Denver that we can partner with to provide legal services. I have set a goal of 100% pro bono participation by all attorneys in our Denver office for 2020 and am actively working towards that goal. I hope that my colleagues and I can find new ways that we can use our legal skills to serve our community.

Turning to the personal goal I set for myself, I lucked into the perfect friend and supporter while pursuing my other goal. Right after joining my firm, I volunteered to work on a pro bono case with another associate and a partner agreed to work on the project with me.  As luck would have it, the partner supervising us turned out to be a bit of bully and threw us under the bus at the first opportunity. The silver lining of this was that I met my best friend, Christine Connell. This traumatizing experience was such a bonding moment that when Christine – who lives in DC – came to Denver on vacation, she came to the office and got lunch with me. Lunches together became routine when I went to DC for work or she came to Colorado. This soon turned into trips together and weekends in Colorado hiking.

Unlike me, who was never outdoorsy nor confident in her physical abilities, Christine was an athlete and an adventurer. Christine has that calm, cool confidence and grace that you just can’t fake. She can also run a marathon up and down a mountain and ice climb with an ax. Through Christine’s encouragement, a lifetime of myths that I’d taken as gospel – “I’m smart but not athletic,” “Girls aren’t tough,” “You’ll just hurt or embarrass yourself”- melted away as we hiked through the mountains of Colorado.  Before I met Christine, I did not own a pair of decent sneakers, let alone a pair of hiking boots. I had never heard the word “cairn” and went on my first few hikes carrying a purse. Slowly over the course of the summer of 2018, my confidence grew along with my leg muscles as Christine challenged me with harder and harder hikes. Finally, in September we took a road trip to southern Colorado. With promises of crystal clear alpine lakes that I’ve come to love, Christine convinced me that it was time to do my first 14ner: Mount Sneffels.  Before dawn, we met up with some of Christine’s friends, who are also experienced mountain climbers. They put a helmet on me and quickly explained how to climb on steep terrain and loose rocks without causing a mini rock avalanche. Heart raising and nervous that I couldn’t do it and afraid I would slow the group down or not summit before the afternoon storms rolled in, we began our ascent. As expected, I was the slowest in the group, hanging just behind a girl who had recently had knee surgery. She kept me company as we climbed up the steep loose gravel, taking two steps forward and sliding one step back. Far up ahead, Christine and her friends encouraged me.  As hikers started to climb back down and pass by me a number stopped to tell me I could do it and that I should be proud that I was climbing my first 14er. One guy gave me the pair of gloves he was wearing to protect my hands as I gripped rocks and slipped and fell over and over again. I wondered how they knew it was my first 14er and why they were so supportive. I later learned that Christine and her friends had told the hikers that the girl in the bright orange pants (me) was doing her first 14er and asked them to encourage me. Their kind words motivated me as I panted and pulled myself up the mountain. After what seemed like a 100 miles of vertical climb, we neared the summit. Christine’s friends supported me as I climbed through a small opening in the rock to reach the summit. I had reached the top of my first 14er! The sense of strength and accomplishment I felt was a high I had never experienced. Clumsy Britton who previously thought to drink on patios was an outdoor pursuit had climbed a really big mountain!

Over the course of the summer and fall, I climbed another four 14ers and have learned to overcome obstacles and fears, from altitude sickness to sandstorms to slips and falls and bumps and bruises. These climbs gave me the strength I needed to get through a number of personal and professional failures. Christine joked that hiking is my coping mechanism. And it’s true – when I went through a painful break-up, I spent the weekend stomping around the Great Sand Dunes putting one foot in front of the other until I finally felt okay about everything. Hiking has been a “gateway” drug for me if you will, opening my eyes up to the power of nature and pushing yourself.  Since then, I’ve explored meditation, yoga, rock climbing, and snow-shoeing. These pursuits have replaced cocktails and fancy restaurants as my preferred pastimes and I’ve never been happier.

As fall 2018 turned to winter, Christine reminded me of my other goal: learning to ski. Partially motivated by the cute guy I was dating at the time who loved to ski and partially by a desire to replace my weekends of hiking with another outdoor pursuit, I bought an Epic Local pass and rented ski gear for the season. Using skiing as an excuse to spend a weekend in the mountains with the cute guy, I booked us a room at the Holiday Inn near Keystone (I’m on a budget here!) and signed up for a ski lesson at Keystone.  My stomach tied up in knots as we drove to Keystone for my lesson. I remembered trying to snowboard as a teenager and being teased by my cousins – natural athletes who had skied all of their lives – and judging myself and then quitting snowboarding because I wasn’t good enough to keep up. Freed from my adolescent insecurities, I reminded myself that I was doing this for me. After my first lesson, where I successfully navigated a bunny hill and received high marks from my instructor for learning how to peel myself off the ground after falling on my butt legs akimbo, I was hooked. Keystone had this amazing deal where you could get a 10-pack of lessons for $450. so I signed myself up. Christine, being the dutiful friend and my personal outdoor ambassador signed up for the lessons with me.

Taking advantage of a slow period at work, Christine and I ran off to the mountains almost every weekend to ski, sneaking out of the office early when the forecast called for powder. Together we skied more than 20 days last year and I’m proud to report that I can confidently ski down greens and less gracefully make my way down blues. We’ve signed up for the full Epic Pass for the 2019-2020 season, another 10 pack of lessons, and I’ve set a goal of skiing moguls.

Reflecting on these past few years, I’ve never felt stronger or more self-assured. The confidence that I’ve gained through challenging myself to help others and push my boundaries has turned me into a stronger, more grounded woman.   plan to continue my journey of service and personal growth by setting two new goals: (1) set-up an organization in Denver similar to Her Justice that pairs volunteer attorneys with underprivileged women in need of legal representation and (2) climb all of Colorado’s 14ers. These are big goals but I now have that quiet-confidence-that-you-can’t-fake and know I can do this.

That’s my story about a girl from Colorado who went away and then rediscovered her roots through acts of service and physical feats in the wake of the election of a president who doesn’t stand with women, those in need, or desire to protect our beautiful natural resources. I hope my story can inspire other women to find motivation in adversity and push themselves to stand-up for causes they care about and do things that thought they couldn’t do.  In the words of my barre class instructor, you’re stronger than you think you are.

Has it been a smooth road?
This has been the farthest thing from a smooth road. Frankly, it’s involved a number of dead ends where I had to re-think the direct I was going. I spent my youth fantasizing about a glamorous and cosmopolitan life on the East Coast. After 14 years and two degrees trying to make that dream come true, I realized it wasn’t even what I wanted. I also struggled with preconceived and stereotypical ideas of women and what women are supposed to do and are capable of. It took me until my mid-30s to discover that I wasn’t the weak, delicate flower that I thought I was and believed I was supposed to be.

My advice to young women is to dream big and set your goals, but be open to the possibility of a different path that you run into along the way; it’s okay to give up on a goal or change your mind. Frequently – especially professionally – we don’t know what we want and value until we’ve tried something.  I thought I was going to be a New Yorker for life but later realized that wasn’t me. My other pieces of advice are volunteer, take time for yourself, and find mentors and allies. There’s something powerful and fulfilling about helping others. Find something you believe in or a way that you can help your community and contribute your time and energy to that project. I promise that the people you help will be grateful, but you will reap the biggest reward from your service.  Equally important is finding time for yourself. I run across an increasing number of women who feel guilty about doing things for themselves or spending money on themselves. There is NOTHING wrong with taking care of yourself. Self-love is so important to well-being. Make time for it, get enough sleep, and don’t feel guilty about it!

Lastly, as you’ll read in my story, many of my achievements have grown out of opportunities to give to me by mentors and friends. Lino’s guidance led me to found CJI’s Young Professionals’ Committee, participating in a national series of high-level #metoo roundtables, and service on my firm’s national pro bono committee. Christine has encouraged and supported me as I learned to hike and ski. Mentors and good friends can open doors for you and provide you the support and strength you need to succeed. Seek out and maintain these relationships, it’s worth the effort.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into your business story. Tell us more about the business.
I’m a Managing Associate at Denton, which is the world’s largest law firm. I am a member of the firm’s White Collar and Government Investigations group where I conduct internal investigations and represent large companies in actions brought against them by the government. I love my work as it gives me the opportunity to work closely with clients across a variety of industries and resolve a dispute and complex disputes. That is the part of my job that pays the bills, however, I am extremely proud of my non-paying duties and roles, which include:

– Board Member of the Colorado Judicial Institute

— Founder and Chair of CJI’s Young Professionals Committee

–Volunteer organizer of the nationally recognized roundtable series The #MeToo Movement and the Role of Lawyers

– Member of Dentons’ Women’s program (Women’s LEAD)

– Member of Dentons’ Pro Bono Committee

– Women’s Rights advocate, speaker, mentor and event organizer

– Volunteer victim’s rights attorney

I am most proud of the volunteer work I do to advance women’s rights, diversity, and inclusiveness in the workplace, and educate Colorado voters about our judicial system. I take great pride in knowing that I am helping other women advance and am involved in a roundtable series that is meaningfully changing how major corporations handle #metoo issues.  I also take pride in supporting Colorado’s selection of judges based on a system of merit, not campaign finance or politics. A big part of that is educating voters, so they can take pride in our system as well.

I’m not sure what sets me apart from others. We all have incredible, rich stories to tell. I will say that I’ve been fortunate to have had been able to go to college, obtain a law degree, and most importantly come from a family that has encouraged me to pursue my dreams and take care of others. I’ve been afforded the opportunity to travel across the globe, bee exposed to many cultures and lived in a number of interesting places.  As a result, I think I’ve been exposed to a lot of good ideas and values. I try to take those ideas and values and implement them in our community and my personal life.

Do you have any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general? What has worked well for you?
Yes! Mentors are so important! This is one of my biggest pieces of advice. I think finding a mentor is more about being open to the idea of being mentored than finding the perfect mentor. The people that invest time in you are generally the best mentors. If there’s someone you work with or know socially that takes an interest in helping you, follow-up on that. Ask that person to get coffee with you or have a phone date. With respect to networking, go out to events in your community or relevant to your career and talk to EVERYONE. Do not bring a friend with you and do not talk to people you already know – that’s not networking. It might feel awkward at first to strike up conversations with people you don’t know – particularly if they are more senior – but remember they showed up to that event too and are likely open to chatting. Equally important: follow-up with the people you meet. I try to make time for at least one or two coffees with new people every week. I also stay in touch by inviting people I meet to events I’m attending or organizing. What has worked for me is getting involved with causes that I care about and meeting like-minded people. This includes volunteering for nonprofits and on committees/activities within my firm.

Contact Info:

• Address: Britton Nohe-Braun
  Dentons US LLP
  1400 Wewatta Street Suite 700
  Denver, CO 80202
• Email: britton.nohe-braun@dentons.com
• Instagram: @brittongoeswest

Image Credit:
Christine Connell

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