Our Team

Attorney Louisa Schlieben

I provide clients with empathetic, solutions-oriented representation during some of the most difficult periods of their lives. Most of my clients are going through divorce and or custody cases, which may include disputes around spousal support (maintenance), division of assets and debts, parenting time and decision making (custody), child support, emergency motions, domestic violence and child abuse.  

My no-nonsense approach to family law is informed by my training as a public defender. I started representing clients while still in law school, interning with the Innocence Project, then representing clients on a student license with the Alaska Public Defender Agency in Fairbanks and with the Legal Aid Society in New York City. I moved to Denver after graduation to work as a deputy public defender. Through these opportunities, I was able to represent hundreds of clients facing traffic, misdemeanor and felony charges, and participated in over a dozen jury trials before the one-year anniversary of my bar admission.

Over the last decade of working with families, I have dealt with complex jurisdictional matters, high asset divorces, incredibly messy businesses, support calculations involving unconventional income sources, international and interstate abductions involving the FBI and the State Department, devastating relocation cases, emotionally wrought struggles between biological parents and the friends/family/acquaintances entrusted to care for their children, and more. Through it all, I have witnessed some of the best and worst that these situations bring out in people. 

My path to a legal career was different than most attorneys. I am one of five children and grew up in a redlined neighborhood of what was then considered Harlem. I was a dedicated student of classical ballet from when I started walking until I was seventeen years old and performed with the New York City Ballet and the American Ballet Theater as a student. I went to elementary school at a German school in White Plains New York, spent middle school at an elite all-girls private school on an employee scholarship, then attended two different performing arts high schools before graduating from the Waldorf school my grandfather once ran. I worked full time to pay my way through Hunter College (CUNY), spent a year working for one of the first women to graduate law school, then attended the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law on a full academic scholarship. 

I have lived the experiences of many modern families. I know it takes courage to entrust a stranger (especially a lawyer) with some the most important things in life: your long-term financial security, the wellbeing of your children, and your physical and emotional safety. I believe in collaborating with clients throughout their case to find the best path forward for their unique circumstances and I always strive to put children first. You can trust that I will not judge you for your confidences or your tears and I will always be honest with you and fight hard for what matters most to you. 
  
Education 
Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, J.D. 
Hunter College (C.U.N.Y.), B.A., History and Political Science (Cum Laude) 
 
Honors & Distinctions 
Cardozo Merit Scholar, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law 2009 – 2012 
Symposium Editor, Cardozo Public Law, Policy, and Ethics Journal, 2012 
 
Memberships 
Colorado Bar Association 
Family Law Section 
Alternative Dispute Resolution Section 
Denver Bar Association