I grew up in Indiana and, after college in Minnesota and law school in Ohio, moved with my future husband to Colorado in 1982 to begin practicing

Claire Levy

law. We lived in Denver for four years, first in the Capitol Hill neighborhood and then in our first house in the Congress Park neighborhood east of downtown. We immediately became involved in Denver politics and made friends with whom we are still close to this day.

We moved to Boulder in 1986, and we have lived in south Boulder ever since, first in Martin Acres, then in Table Mesa, and now on Shanahan Ridge. I have two daughters, ages 12 and 17. They are both astute observers of national and international affairs. We also have an English Setter, Coco, who has loyally served as my office receptionist for the past five years. My husband of 23 years, David Driscoll, and I enjoy backpacking, cross country skiing, bike rides and reading. I addition, I like to garden, cook and run.

I began my professional life began as a Public Defender in the Appellate Division in Denver. I represented indigent people on appeal who had been convicted of serious felonies. My job was to assure that anyone charged with a crime for which they could be imprisoned received a fair trial, regardless of their income. This work required me to hone my argument skills, both written and oral.

I moved on to a brief stint as a civil trial lawyer in Boulder. I worked with attorneys who were leaders in the field representing people who had been injured in accidents, whether at work, in their cars, by dangerous products, or by malpractice. Through this work I learned about our system of tort claims and automobile insurance.

The public sector and public policy beckoned, and so when a position working on land use and planning opened in the Jefferson County Attorneys office, I jumped at it. I spent ten years driving Highway 93 between Boulder and Golden to work on land use, solid waste, water quality, liquor licensing, and subdivision regulation, among other things. Jefferson County faced tremendous growth pressure. It faced problems with wildfire hazard in the mountains and insufficient access. I helped draft and enforce regulations regarding mountain subdivisions, rural cluster subdivisions, location of cell towers and television towers, aggregate mining, and erosion control, among others. I also worked with legislators on bills related to local government land use authority. Our goal was to retain flexibility for local governments to address their unique problems during a time when the state legislature wanted to take tools away from local government in favor of developers.

For the past six years, I have been in private practice in Boulder. I have represented individual land owners, developers, neighborhood

My husband, youngest daughter and me	My increasingly independent 16 year old

organizations, public interest groups and local governments. I have also had the privilege during this period of volunteering in my daughters' classrooms, with the Boulder Arts Academy, and the Boulder Ballet. I have served on the Boulder County Parks and Open Space Advisory Committee, including three years as Chair; the board of PLAN Boulder County, as co-chair for two years and vice-chair for one year; the Boulder County Housing Authority; and the city of Boulder Planning Board.

Through these experiences I have gained the knowledge required to be an effective legislator; the experience necessary to know when to fight and when to collaborate; the depth to be able to reach out to many interests; and the wisdom to know that I will always have more to learn.