Julia T. Waggener, Esq. is a JAMS DENVER neutral.  JAMS Denver is a licensee office. Policies and procedures may differ between JAMS, Inc., and JAMS Denver. Please visit https://jamsdenver.com/ or contact Lisa Gaige at admindocs@jamsdenver.com or 303-534-1254 for information related to JAMS Denver. 

Julia T. Waggener, Esq. has practiced law emphasizing real estate, contracts and commercial transactions and litigation since 1975. She began her career in the historic courthouses of Vermont and practiced law in Denver from 1977-2018. Before joining JAMS, she handled dozens of mediations and arbitrations privately for parties seeking to resolve their disputes without going to trial. Ms Waggener approaches her dispute resolution practice, just as she has done with her prior practice of law, with an enviable energy and enthusiasm.

Solving puzzles has always been an interest of Ms. Waggener, which drew her early on into the real estate practice and now into dispute resolution. She focuses on fact development and legal analysis.  Relying on experience from decades of handling real estate litigation and transactions, she brings to her dispute resolution practice an ability to help parties distill the facts and law, identify their goals, and with her usual straightforward approach she assists in resolving their disputes. In conducting dispute resolution, as well as in handling clients’ transactions and litigation, she has seen all sides of commercial and residential real estate issues having  worked with buyers, sellers, lenders, borrowers, landlords, tenants, developers, contractors and property owners, title insurance companies, and with real estate brokers and brokerages (including concerning substantial earnest money, commission and inter-broker and broker-client disputes). She also has worked for many years with businesses including automobile dealerships especially in connection with real estate and business asset leases, purchases and sales. She also has served as commissioner in various real estate condemnation (eminent domain) cases. From 2012 until 2018, she was a Governor-appointed member of the Colorado Real Estate Commission. 

ADR Experience and Qualifications

• Completed the 40 hour Colorado Bar Association-CLE Mediation training course in 2007.
• Served as panel arbitrator (including as Chair) for American Arbitration Association from 1992-2016 (arbitrated real estate, contract, construction, and other commercial and business disputes).
• Handled dozens of private mediations and arbitrations at request of private counsel.

Additional Experience
Julie has served the statewide real estate and legal communities in many capacities:

• Colorado Real Estate Commission, Commissioner (Governor-appointed public member, 5 member Commission, including having served as Chair and Vice Chair, 2012-18)
• Condemnation commissioner (including as Chair) in Denver condemnation cases
• Chairperson, Colorado Real Estate Law Section of the Colorado Bar Association, including four separate terms on its governing Real Estate Section Council
• Member, Colorado Real Estate Bar Real Estate Section Title Standards Committee (and liaison to Real Estate Section Council 2013-2018)
• Second Judicial District Nominating Commission Member, (Governor-appointed, 6 member Commission), (2002-2008)
• Member (and ex-officio)-Lawyer-Realtor Inter-Professional Committee since early 1990s.
• Representative twice on the CBA Board of Governors
• Member, Denver Bar Association Legal Fee Arbitration Committee (1993-1996)

Honors, Memberships, and Professional Activities

• Colorado “Super Lawyer” Designation in area of Real Estate every year from 2006 to 2017 (and “Top 25 Women Lawyers”, 2008).
• Selected for inclusion in the 2011-2020 editions of The Best Lawyers in America® in the area of Real Estate Law.
• Martindale-Hubbell “av” rated since the early 1980’s.
• Co-counsel, including author of appellate briefs for real estate issues, pro bono (1995-2018), for the historic “Taylor Ranch” case, Lobato v. Taylor, supporting the successful efforts by successors to the first Hispanic settlers near San Luis, Colorado, to identify, and confirm their long-standing real estate easement rights on the 75,000 acre Taylor Ranch to hunt, gather firewood and timber.
• Featured speaker at Colorado CLE programs, including Annual Real Estate Symposium (450+ real estate lawyers) (most years from 1990-2017); topics have included title and deed issues, roads, easements, boundary disputes, title insurance endorsements, adverse possession, ditches, reservoirs and drainage easements, general servitude issues, among others.
• Authored "Claims Arising from the Construction of Residential Real Estate," Real Property Practice and Litigation.  Shepard's McGraw-Hill, Inc.  (1990)
• Honored as one of the "First 100 Women Lawyers" admitted in Vermont (#63rd)

Background and Education

• BA University of California, San Diego (1972)
• JD California Western School of Law (1975) (Law Review editor; top 10 in class rank)