Frederick B. Skillern, 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. 

Frederick B. Skillern, Esq. joined JAMS in 2017 after a forty-year career trying cases in Colorado courts. After four years as a prosecutor, most of his work was in real estate and general business litigation. He assisted clients in a wide range of real estate transactions and tried dozens of cases to verdict throughout Colorado and neighboring states. He served as a district court judge in Colorado’s 18th Judicial District from 2000 to 2003, presiding over more than sixty jury trials.  He shares a passion for both the intricacies of real estate law and helping people solve problems.

Fred is a past chair (2005-2006) of the Colorado Bar Association’s Real Estate Section Council and has presented the annual “Case Law Update” at the annual Colorado Real Estate Symposium since 1998.

ADR Experience and Qualifications

Mr. Skillern believes a mediator with deep knowledge of the context in which the litigants live and work can help the parties bridge the gap and reach agreement – “speaking their language” can help identify the complex set of interests and emotions involved in a given dispute.

Mr. Skillern completed mediation training in 2008 with Linda Singer and Michael Lewis at Harvard Law School’s Negotiation Institute and had success serving as a mediator as a part of his private practice. At JAMS, he now works exclusively on mediation, arbitration, and as court-appointed commissioner and special master in all types of real estate cases.

Additional Experience

As a lawyer prior to joining JAMS in 2017, Mr. Skillern led clients into more than 100 formal mediation sessions and served as mediator in more than forty cases.  

Recent published appellate cases in his practice:

• Sandstrom v. Solen, 370 P.3d 669 (Colo. App. 2016) (property tax liens)
• First American Title Insurance Company v. Fidelity National Title Company, 310 P.3d 272 (Colo. App. 2013) (title insurance)
• Joondeph v. Hicks, 235 P.3d 303 (Colo. 2010) (equitable subrogation)
• R.C.R. v. Deline, 190 P.3d 140 (Wyo. 2008) (easements)

Mr. Skillern was engaged as an expert witness in more than 80 cases from 2000-2017. He testified in courts across Colorado, on issues ranging from real estate and title insurance practices to attorney fee disputes and professional liability claims against lawyers and brokers.

Author and contributing editor, West’s Colorado Methods of Practice, on the chapters on the law of Future Interests (Chapter 72) and Civil Judgment Execution Sales (Chapter 40) in the 6th and 7th editions.

Author of chapter on Judicial Foreclosures in the 2017 and 2018 editions of Colorado Real Estate Practice (CLE of Colorado, Inc.)

Author, Rule 120 – Due Process for the Public Trustee Foreclosure, Chapter 2 in Foreclosure Law in Colorado, CLE in Colorado Inc, 2017.

Adjunct Professor, University of Denver’s Sturm College of Law, upper level classes in real estate transactions, titles and finance, 2006-2017.  

Service as a court-appointed commissioner for partition of real property, under C.R.S. section 38-28-105.

Honors, Memberships, and Professional Activities

• 2014 Marsh CLE Award of Excellence, given by the Colorado Bar Association in recognition of teaching, writing, and contribution to continuing legal education programs for real estate attorneys over a twenty-year period.
• Colorado Bar Association’s Real Estate Section Council from 1998-2006, and Chair of the Real Estate Section in 2005-2006. In this capacity, served as joint or lead author of successful amendments to statutes dealing with foreclosures, spurious liens, the Colorado common interest ownership act, and the statutory rule against perpetuities.
• Service on the Colorado Supreme Court’s Committee on Rules of Civil Procedure from 1987 to 2016, and lead author of changes to the rules on receiverships, foreclosures, applications for attorney fee awards, and appointment of receivers. From 2014 to 2018, led the subcommittee that recommended extensive changes to C.R.C.P 120 adopted by the Supreme Court in 2018.
• Colorado Super Lawyer designation in Real Estate every year from 2006 to 2017, and in 2018-19 for Alternative Dispute Resolution.

Background and Education

• A.B.  Dartmouth College, 1973
• J.D.  University of Colorado, 1976, case editor of University of Colorado Law Review