Samantha Pryor always knew she wanted to be an attorney. And she always knew she’d open her practice in Central Park.
Her practice, The Halliburton Law Firm, recently re-located to the Shops at Northfield after moving from Central Park’s South End neighborhood.
“I chose Central Park to open my practice because it’s diverse, it’s thriving, and I’ve always wanted to serve to my community,” she says. “Central Park sits in just the right proximity between Denver’s far northeast Denver neighborhoods, Park Hill where many of my clients are.”
Little did she know that when she opened her own practice, she’d be helping people in her community and in her own family.
Pryor, who has been practicing law for over 10 years, focuses her practice on assisting businesses with preparing, reviewing and negotiating contracts. Mrs. Pryor also represents personal injury victims and negotiates severance agreements in employment matters. Mrs. Pryor has created a niche in the law profession by representing cold war veterans from the former Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons facility.
Her father, late grandfather, and late uncle all worked there and, like other former workers, had been suffering from various illnesses traced to the work being done there. The Rocky Flats Plant shut down in 2005.
Various forms of cancer and other illnesses that might have otherwise been misdiagnosed were being increasingly linked to exposure to harmful toxic substances at the Rocky Flats facility. But many former workers are still having a difficult time navigating the claims process – to the point of having legitimate claims denied.
“Some of the workings of this claims process are egregious” Pryor says. “It was as though claimants were being dissuaded from filing or pressing on because of the layers of paperwork and evidence requirements that many laymen can’t even understand, creating a huge need for legal representation. It is an unnecessarily adversarial, non-transparent process.”
After her uncle’s death in 2012, Pryor sued the Department of Labor (DOL) in federal court on behalf of her aunt to force the DOL to produce the files and records the DOL used to deny her claim for survivor benefits. As a result of the lawsuit, DOL finally complied with their many requests to produce the claims file.
“Gaining access to a complete set of those records levels the playing field for claimants, and allows the claimants to challenge the DOL’s decisions.”
Today, she and her assistant, Keri Brackett, handle these cases, as well as those in the realm of business, employment, personal injury and litigation.
They are excited about their new location and eager to continue assisting cold war veterans and all others in need of superior, advocacy- and community-based legal counsel.
They can be reached at 303-803-1060.
