Congratulations to R. Blake Hamilton for being chosen as the Federal Bar Association’s (FBA) Pro Bono Honoree for the Utah Chapter. He will be honored alongside Honorable Chief Judge Robert J. Shelby, Juliette P. White, and Kristen Angelos at the FBA Utah Annual Awards Banquet on April 20, 2023.

Blake graduated from Gonzaga University School of Law in 2006 and is a Shareholder in the Salt Lake office of Dentons Durham Jones Pinegar. Blake served as the Utah Chapter’s FBA President last year. He practices litigation in the area of civil rights defense, commercial litigation, and white collar criminal defense. Blake’s pro bono work includes appointments through the Utah Chapter’s Pro Bono Project where he has assisted Utah inmates with their federal claims.

For anyone interested in participating in the Utah Chapter’s Pro Bono Project, the cases that Blake handled are good examples of the interesting and rewarding work the program provides. In Allen v. Cook, Blake represented a Utah prison inmate asserting civil rights claims surrounding the prison’s handling of his challenge of a positive prison drug test. Blake was appointed on behalf of Mr. Allen in November 2019 to respond to a motion for summary judgment filed by the defendants. He responded to the Motion and moved to amend Mr. Allen’s complaint, and ultimately negotiated a settlement for Mr. Allen to end the case in September 2020. In Gonzalez v. Nelson, Blake was appointed to represent Utah prison inmate who had was assigned to a top bunk in his cell despite a medical clearance for only bottom bunk assignments and suffered injuries from a resulting fall. Blake’s limited appearance on Mr. Gonzalez’s behalf began in November 2021 for the purpose of responding to a motion for summary judgment filed by the defendants, and he successfully negotiated a settlement for Mr. Gonzalez by March 2022.

Blake wants to express special thanks to the members of his team at Dentons who assisted him with these matters, including his paralegal Melani Thatcher, attorneys Oscar Casto and Ashley Gregson, and translator Nikolaj Widenmann. He’s also wants to recognize the attorneys from the AG’s office representing the government defendants whose cooperation facilitated resolutions in these cases. Those included Darin Goff, Diana Fay Bradley, Rachel Terry, Heather Chesnut.

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