Heather Sanders

With an unshakable desire to start a different kind of law firm, Heather co-founded BAM Family Law (Broxterman Alicks McFarlane PC) with one vision: to build a law firm that recognizes and meets not just the legal, but the holistic human needs of all clients while helping them navigate the family law system.

Heather brings extensive experience as well as patience, understanding, and careful attention to detail to all of her clients. She is very aware that most people in need of a family law attorney are experiencing some of the most difficult moments of their lives. Heather prides herself on being attentive, responsive, sensitive, and direct. She has comprehensive experience in all facets of family law, including dissolution, high conflict cases, collaborative cases, mediation, complicated financial issues, international child abduction cases, dissolution of civil union cases, parenting litigation involving same-sex couples, and appellate cases. Heather has extensive experience with complicated financial issues including the division of business interests, the valuation of business interests, trusts, privately-held stock, and high-level compensation packages. Heather is especially proud to have been able to work on some of the early same-sex couple rights cases in Colorado, including the legalization of same-sex marriage and recognition for second parents pursuant to C.R.S. 19-4-105.

Long before earning her law degree from Georgetown University in 2010, Heather was focused on the legal, logistical and psychological issues impacting families. While at the University of Virginia for her undergraduate education, she wrote her thesis on the changing roles of parenthood in the context of divorce. During college, Heather worked for the Charlottesville Public Defender’s Office in Charlottesville, Virginia. It was there that she was extensively trained in motivational interviewing, including preparing clients not only for trials and sentencing, but also in long-term planning for their lives. Before leaving the Public Defender’s Office, Heather helped pave the way for bringing mental health courts to Charlottesville by researching the policies, procedures, remedy structures and qualification criteria of such courts in the United States. This was a particularly important project for Heather, as she has comprehensively studied mental health diagnoses and their crossover to the court system. Heather continues this interest today, as she has extensive experience with cases involving a party (or child) with mental health issues. Heather takes a deep and sophisticated interest in such cases, giving them the extra care and attention that they need.

Following her graduation from Georgetown in 2010, Heather moved to her much-loved home of Colorado. Out of law school, she began clerking for the Honorable James C. Klein of Colorado’s Twentieth Judicial District in Boulder. Working with Judge Klein, Heather learned to master the complexities of the family law system, conducting legal research, drafting orders on motions and requests for rulings, arranging and monitoring child and family investigator appointments. Heather also assisted the court during hearings and was a bailiff during jury trials. Heather’s favorite part about clerking was the incomparable privilege of watching judges react to evidence and personalities. She is particularly attuned to judicial demeanor and is skilled at tailoring her evidence presentation to be as effective as possible with the presiding judge.

From July 2011 until she founded BAM, Heather was a senior associate attorney for Gutterman Griffiths in Littleton, Colo., where she independently managed an extensive family law caseload, including dissolution cases, post-decree financial litigation, post-decree parenting litigation, international child abduction cases, dissolution of civil union cases, parenting litigation involving same-sex couples, and appellate cases.

In 2022 Heather was named as one of the Denver Business Journal’s “Outstanding Women in Business.” She was one of only 33 honorees whom the publication described as “the Denver metro area’s top women executives, entrepreneurs, philanthropists and influencers.”

In 2023 she was recognized by ColoradoBiz magazine as being among the top young professionals in the state. The magazine’s GenXYZ honorees are described as “uncommon achievers, whether as entrepreneurs, CEOs, nonprofit leaders, visionaries critical to their companies’ success or, in some cases, all of those roles.” Heather was named to the GenXYZ Top 25 and was ultimately honored as a Top 5 Young Professional, an outstanding achievement.

Heather believes wholeheartedly that each family law case is different and deserving of individual attention, expertise and understanding.

PUBLISHED CASES

In the Interest of Madrone, 2012 CO 70 (Colo. 2012)

ARTICLES

“Who Gets the Pre-Embryos in the Divorce?” Law Week Colorado, June 24, 2019

PRESENTATIONS

“Applying Technology to Settlement, Pretrial and Trial,” Presented by Carolyn Witkus and Heather Broxterman, November 21, 2013 at the National Business Institute, Using Technology to Win Your Case

“Civil Unions in Colorado: Family Law Implications,” Civil Unions CLE: Family Law and Estate Issues in a Time of Rapid Change, Co-presented with Ann Gushurst, November 4, 2013

Alternative Families – Changing Options for Non- Biological Same-Sex Parents, OUTLaws Conference at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, 2012

Expert Witness Bootcamp: “Cross-Examining a Mental Health Professional.” Presented by Heather Broxterman, October 29, 2015 at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law

PROFESSIONAL FORUMS

Panelist, “Year of the Woman” Roundtable, Law Week Colorado, April 3, 2019

Panelist, Law Week Colorado Managing Partner Roundtable: “Challenges of a Post-COVID World,” July 26, 2021

AFFILIATIONS

Member, Colorado Bar Association

Member, Boulder County Bar Association

Member, Colorado Bar Association, Family Law Section

EDUCATION

B.A. Sociology University of Virginia, Minor in Economics

J.D. Georgetown University Law Center

AWARDS AND CREDENTIALS

Avvo Rating: 10 Superb

Colorado Super Lawyers® Rising Stars 2017-2021

Colorado Super Lawyers® 2022-2023

The Best Lawyers in America© 2020-2023

Denver Business Journal Outstanding Women in Business 2022