Rachel Yates

Rachel Yates has practiced law at Holland & Hart since she graduated cum laude from Boston University School of Law in 1990. Ms. Yates recently served for five years as the Administrative Partner of the firm's Denver Tech Center Office. At Holland & Hart, her litigation practice is divided into three areas: commercial litigation, oil and gas, and aerospace law.

Ms. Yates represents major and mid-sized companies with business interests in the Rocky Mountain region and throughout the world. As a litigator, she has defended a range of cases, from small lawsuits to mass tort and class actions.

In service to the firm's aerospace industry clients, Ms. Yates has advised them on government contracting and risk avoidance issues. She actively participates in the Colorado Space Coalition. In that capacity, she has testified to the Colorado federal congressional delegation on export controls, drafted working documents analyzing the impacts on industry, and proposed legislatives solutions. From 2009-10, Ms. Yates chaired a multi-session working group of industry members under the sponsorship of the Samuelson-Glushko Technology Law and Policy Clinic at the University of Colorado Law School and Ms. Tawyna Ferbiak to help formulate an introductory guide on export controls for aerospace companies. In addition, Ms. Yates has worked closely with her client, the Colorado Springs-based Space Foundation, to present practical and real-world advice at the International Space Symposium, in Toulouse, France, and the National Space Symposium held annually in Colorado Springs, Colorado. She developed the first legal workshop presented during the symposium to ensure that the space industry learns about cutting-edge developments in the law and the opportunities for risk avoidance.

More specifically, Ms. Yates has published and presented on commercial spaceflight law nationally and abroad: Conference of the Americas (2010, Pachuca, Mexico); International Bar Association (2008, Buenos Aires); the International Institute of Space Law (2006, Valencia); the University of Nebraska Law School (2008); and University of Colorado School of Law (2009).

Ms. Yates received her Certificate of Completion from the International Space University (ISU) Summer Session Program 2003, held in Strasbourg, France. In addition to coursework in space policy and law, this program involved an intensive interdisciplinary curriculum covering the principal space-related fields, including spacecraft design and engineering, satellite applications, orbital mechanics, life sciences, physical sciences, and business management. During the program, she co-authored TRACKS to Space: Technology Research and Cooperative Knowledge Sharing, a report on innovative space technologies commissioned by the European Space Agency.