It wasn’t just a burgeoning career in politics or a passion for public policy that pushed Nigel Daniels into law school.
Growing up, his family was poor. His mother worked to support two sons, and his brother had developmental disabilities. The family relied on the state for support in custody battles and for his brother’s health care.
Once, as they waited at a Denver bus stop, his mother told him they were meeting a lawyer.
“I’m thinking, it’s going to be a suit and tie and all those stereotypes you expect of lawyers,” Daniels recalls. “We’re sitting at the bus stop. The RTD pulls up, and there’s that ‘beep, beep, beep, beep, beep.’ It’s this woman in a wheelchair.
“She rolled off the bus and said, ‘I’m your lawyer.’ Watching her fight for my brother, she fought harder than anybody. That’s where I think I learned you can really do something with this profession.”
That put him on track to eventually attend the University of Denver, where he will