Practice Areas & Industries: Holme Roberts & Owen LLP

Practice/Industry Group Overview

Dramatic advances in the understanding of natural systems and their functions, coupled with greater comprehension of the inter-relatedness of the social and economic systems in which those natural systems exist, create opportunities to develop greater value and utility from large properties. Developing this value and utility, however, requires not only enlightened technical management strategies, but also sophisticated legal expertise.

Services Available

Holme Roberts & Owen LLP’s (HRO) Open Lands and Ranch Services Team provides a comprehensive array of legal and technical management services designed to address the diverse needs associated with changes in the ownership, management, and use of large parcels of land. Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, HRO has attorneys licensed and experienced in every state in the West. Our services enable landowners to safely, efficiently, and profitably acquire, sell, manage, and develop large properties throughout the Western United States.

Large land transactions can require a wide variety of legal services. HRO attorneys have outstanding skill and experience in real estate and land use due diligence, conservation planning, boundary disputes, recreation development, finance, tax, wealth transfer planning, environmental issues, energy and mineral exploration and development, water rights analysis and development, and federal, state and local agency permitting. Whether you are looking to purchase or sell property, expand operations at your existing ranch, preserve a pristine meadow for future generations, or obtain water rights to enhance your favorite stream, HRO can provide the necessary legal services and suggest consultants to help you realize your goals. Through the Open Lands and Ranch Services Team, the full spectrum of legal needs accompanying the transfer or management of large parcels of land is coordinated and focused to provide our clients with the most appropriate legal expertise necessary to enable them to achieve their goals.

We see large parcels of land as diverse portfolios of assets that can be structured to support a variety of enterprises. Identifying and understanding those assets and developing the enterprises they will support is critical to developing sustainable, profitable ownership and management strategies. In this regard, HRO has formed strategic alliances with non-legal consultants whose expertise complements our services. One example of such a consultant is Carrus Land Systems, LLC, a land management group comprised of some of the most innovative and experienced land, ranch, and wildlife managers in the country. These alliances enable us to help our clients accurately assess the financial, personal, and ecological opportunity costs associated with alternative management strategies and legal frameworks and to select the strategy that most effectively allows them to meet specific objectives for their property.

Simply put, the goal of HRO’s Open Lands and Ranch Services Team is to save our clients time and money, to simplify the buying, selling, and management of large properties, and to achieve an outcome that accommodates individual goals and objectives.