Overview:

Kaleb Brooks joined the firm as an associate in 2017 and became a shareholder in January 2024.  Kaleb’s practice is focused on complex litigation in fields including environmental cost recovery, environmental torts, construction defect, condemnation and eminent domain, and products liability.  Kaleb has litigated extensively in New Mexico state courts, the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico, and the United States Supreme Court sitting in its original jurisdiction.  Kaleb is also active in the firm’s transactional practice, with a concentration on commercial lending, secured credit, and real estate.  Kaleb maintains an active pro bono practice through the Santa Fe Homeless Legal Clinic.

Kaleb graduated summa cum laude from the Indiana University Maurer School of Law where he attained admission to the Order of the Coif and Foster Inn chapter of Phi Delta Phi. During law school, his course of study and scholarship specialized in labor and employment law, and he served on the board of editors for the Indiana Law Journal. Prior to law school, Kaleb coached debate, taught communication courses, and researched rhetoric and argumentation at the University of Denver. He completed his undergraduate education at Regis University.

Experience

Representative Cases

  • State of Texas v. State of New Mexico and State of Colorado, Original Action #141 in the United States Supreme Court (defense of the State of New Mexico in interstate Rio Grande Compact dispute; ongoing)
  • In re: Gold King Mine Release in San Juan County, Colorado, on August 5, 2015, Case No. 1:18-md-02824-WJ in the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico (CERCLA cost recovery and tort damages relating to the 2015 Gold King Mine spill in Southwestern Colorado; ongoing)
  • Augustin Plains Ranch, LLC v. Tom Blaine, P.E., No. D-728-CV-2018-00026 in the Seventh Judicial District Court (counsel for water rights applicant in complex project involving proposed pipeline to transport groundwater into the Middle Rio Grande; on remand in the Court of Appeals following a successful appeal)

Background:

Education:

Indiana University: Maurer School of Law
Juris Doctorsumma cum laude, May 2017
Order of the Coif

University of Denver: School of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences
Master of Arts, Perfect Marks, June 2014
Graduate Teaching Instructor and Debate Coach

Regis University: Regis College
Bachelor of Arts and Sciencessumma cum laude, May 2012
Degree Programs: Politics and Economics

 

 

Honors:

Scholarships:

“Mickey” and Janie Maurer Scholarship
Robert and Darlene Duvin Scholarship
Ogletree Deakins Labor and Employment Law Scholarship 

Awards:

Order of the Coif
Best Brief Award: Sherman Minton Moot Court Competition
Maurer School of Law Dean’s Honors
6 CALI Excellence for the Future Awards
Stoler-Medina Outstanding Forensics Student Award
Joseph A. Ryan, S.J. Award for Excellence in Economics ​

Selected Publications:

Kaleb W. Brooks, Sonali R. Hanson, “Update on National, 10th Circuit, and New Mexico E-Discovery Practice,” New Mexico Trial Practice Institute (Dec. 2021).

Kaleb W. Brooks, Note, Too Heavy a Burden: Testing Complicity-Based Claims Under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, 92 Ind. L.J. 40 (2016).

Hanan, Joshua S., Indradeep Ghosh, & Kaleb W. Brooks, Banking on the Present: The Ontological Rhetoric of Neo-Classical Economics and Its Relation to the 2008 Financial Crisis, 100 Q.J. of Speech, no. 2, 2014, at 1.

Kaleb W. Brooks, Debtor’s Empowerment: Muhammad Yunus and the Rhetoric of Microfinance (Jan. 1. 2014) (M.A. thesis, University of Denver) (available at http://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/90/).