Legal Team

Dick Waltz

For over 28 years, Mr. Waltz’ Colorado practice has focused primarily in the area of defense litigation emphasizing products liability, construction defect, personal injury, public entity, and professional malpractice in both state and federal courts. Mr. Waltz personally has tried over 90 jury trials involving significant injuries, which include Plaintiffs claiming significant economic, non-economic and disability damages from paraplegia, quadriplegia, significant closed head injuries and wrongful death, including other very serious orthopedic injuries. Mr. Waltz has defended hundreds of complex litigation matters, e.g., construction defect claims under C.D.A.R.A., contracts, products liability, public entity defense, intellectual property claims, premises liability claims and professional malpractice and litigated complex commercial and contract matters including asbestos abatement cases to verdict. He also has extensive experience in litigating insurance coverage, declaratory actions and bad faith matters and has testified as an expert in such cases. Mr. Waltz has authored briefs and argued numerous appellate matters in the state and federal courts of Colorado, including matters involving the original jurisdiction of the Colorado Supreme Court. The Waltz Law Firm focuses almost exclusively on defense litigation. In 2008 he was selected as a Super Lawyer in the state of Colorado.

From 1974-1981, Mr. Waltz's Ohio practice included his representation of the Ohio National Guardsmen in personal injury litigation arising out of the shooting at the Kent State University campus. Later, as Assistant Attorney General in Ohio and Chief Prosecutor for Medicaid Fraud and President of the National Association of Medicaid Fraud Control Units, he supervised the prosecution of nursing home abuse, statewide grand jury investigation and criminal/civil prosecutions of fraud and abuse of the Medicaid system.

Mr. Waltz graduated from The Ohio State University in 1969. He was honorably discharged from the United States Army in 1971 after two years of active duty. In 1974, he graduated from the University of Toledo law school, where he was a research editor on the University of Toledo Law Review. He is a member of the Colorado and Denver Bar Associations and the Colorado Defense Lawyers’ Association and a member of the Defense Research Institute.

Jack Simmonds

Jack worked for a panel insurance defense law firm as a paralegal and courthouse settlement negotiator during his night law school attendance from 1969 through 1972 until his admittance to the practice of law in New Jersey in May 1973. He graduated from Seton Hall School of Law, Newark, NJ, in the top quarter of his class in December 1972.

From 1973 through 1996, in addition to exclusively trying cases for insurance companies, he was a court appointed arbitrator for the State Courts and the Federal District Court in New Jersey. Jack was certified by the New Jersey Supreme Court as a civil trial attorney specialist January 11, 1983. The Court considered this designation [requiring extensive background information and testing] was akin to being board certified. He had over 100 jury verdicts and over 500 cases settled prior to jury selection by that time.

Jack was admitted to practice in Colorado in 1988 and continued to practice in New Jersey through 1996. For the years, 1994 - 96, Jack was appointed Summit County (Colorado) Coroner. He conducted over 50 death investigations and participated in over 30 post mortems. Jack and an associated pathologist taught local law enforcement on crime scene investigation and preservation of evidence from a medico-legal strategy during that time. He became a member of the American College of Forensic Examiners. Jack joined Zurich Insurance Company Staff Legal in 2000 where he handled major case unit lawsuits for 5 years. In 2005 he joined The Waltz Law Firm and continues to be active on major case litigation matters on a full time basis, including discovery and trials.

James R. Waltz

James Waltz was graduated with a B.S. in Geology & Mineralogy from The Ohio State University in 1974. He received a Juris Doctorate from the University of Toledo in 1981. From 1974 to 1978 he worked in oilfield exploration, offshore in Saudi Arabia, and landside for three years in the United States. Following law school he managed his own law firm in general civil practice in Colorado from 1982 to 1989 emphasizing consumer bankruptcies specializing in tax workouts. Concurrent with this general practice he created Computerized Legal Forms, Inc. which developed, produced and distributed automated computer legal forms for Colorado lawyers. Following this he worked for 7 years with a Fortune 10 company predominately as contracts manager developing professional services products with the responsibility of enforcing corporate policies and procedures. In 2001 he obtained certification as a VOIP telephony dealer for 3Com. In 2002 he joined The Waltz Law Firm as an associate (formerly known as Waltz & D’Antuono) and has exclusively practiced in defense litigation with his brother with emphasis in construction defects, products liability, breach of contract, and personal injury. His successful defense practice routinely involves claims in excess of a million dollars.

Kelly P. Yousem

Prior to attending law school in Columbus Ohio, Mrs. Yousem worked at the Ohio State University College of Medicine doing medical research for eight years. After graduating from law school in 1988, she spent three years as an Assistant Prosecuting Attorney in Columbus Ohio where she spent the majority of this time prosecuting child abuse cases and learning how to be a trial lawyer.

In 1992 Mrs. Yousem moved to Denver, Colorado and began her career as a civil trial lawyer. She has spent the majority of her career since that time combining her expertise in medicine with her litigation skills, providing a unique perspective and insight into medical issues and claimant injuries. She currently specializes in complex medical cases involving catastrophic injury or death.

In addition, Mrs. Yousem has spent time educating law students and professionals on issues relating to the trial process, specifically, how to understand and work with medical issues and how to cross-examine expert witnesses. Additionally she has a special interest in educating individuals regarding their own healthcare and responsible medicine. She has several publications in peer reviewed medical journals.

John D. Halepaska

John D. Halepaska, received his J.D. from the University of Colorado in 1997. He studied civil engineering as an undergraduate at Colorado State University. After practicing for a number of years, John took a brief hiatus to pursue interests in the construction field. John paid his way through school as a skilled carpenter in residential and commercial construction and his knowledge is invaluable on the many construction defect cases we handle. Mr. Halepaska has been with the Waltz Law Firm since 2007.

Mr. Halepaska's practice focuses primarily on defense litigation. He defends insured and self-insured parties who have been sued by third parties. In addition to construction defect matters, Mr. Halepaska has represented clients in a wide variety of liability claims, including cases involving trucking and motor vehicle accidents, premises liability, product liability, wrongful death, and traumatic brain injury, at both the state and federal level.

Mr. Halepaska is a member of the Board of Directors of the Colorado Lawyers Helping Lawyers assistance program.

Carolyn Gyermek

Prior to attending law school, Carolyn worked as a registered nurse for 13 years in multiple states throughout the country including California, New Mexico, Vermont and Colorado. Her practice areas were primarily in the emergency department and critical care. In 2000, she attended the University of Denver where she earned her law degree. During law school, she was on Law Review, and completed an internship for the EEOC, and the Public Defender’s office in Summit County. She was admitted to practice law in California in 2004 and in Colorado in 2010.

Since graduating from law school, Carolyn has focused on personal injury defense. She spent three years defending product liability cases and three years defending medical malpractice cases. She recently relocated to the Denver area and is developing additional trial skills defending complex medical cases. Carolyn is a member of the Colorado Bar Association, the Boulder County Bar Associated and maintains current licenses to practice nursing in both California and Colorado.