Moye White’s founder and leading attorney, John E. Moye, passed away May 27, 2022, from complications of Parkinson’s disease. Colorado Lawyer took a deep and personal look into the vibrant life of John and the everlasting mark he left on the Colorado legal community and his family, friends, clients, partners, and successful firm.
Diving into the early years of John’s career, the memoriam describes his initial success in cofounding the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System (IAALS) and his international studies to develop the program.
As a past law student of Professor John E. Moye, journalist for the Colorado Lawyer Jim Chalat offers a touching look into the classroom of Professor Moye in an excerpt below.
I first met Professor John E. Moye in the fall quarter of 1975 at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. My fellow 2Ls and I were taking our first truly practical law school class, “The Law of Business Associations,” taught by an energetic new instructor named John Moye. We were thrilled to learn that Professor Moye had actually authored the textbook. (We would not be reading the text of some long-deceased Harvard professor!) Professor Moye greeted us from the lectern and welcomed us with a broad smile.
Professor Moye drove a Porsche 911 Targa in which he had installed the latest technology wonder—a cell phone. Humorous and competitive, Professor Moye offered the student with the top final exam score a full hour in the driver’s seat of the Porsche, with full use of the phone (no international calls please). He had an encyclopedic knowledge of pop culture and music, and he often spelled out legal principles in rhyme or using television jingles for well-known products. A partnership was “a voluntary association of two or more persons engaged in a business for profit” (sung to the tune of McDonald’s “two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese …”).
For those of us who had gone to law school to receive a practical education — to develop forward-looking, career-relevant skills — Moye’s course fed directly into our expectations and needs. John never hesitated to offer his classes to the evening division. He was as accessible to the older students with families and day jobs as he was to those of us who came to law school directly out of a four-year college.
The memoriam was published July 2022 in Colorado Lawyer and can be read in full here.
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Moye White is a full-service business law firm serving clients throughout the United States and internationally, with offices in Colorado and Georgia. The firm provides legal representation to clients in a wide variety of industries offering strategic, business-oriented counsel to public, private, and governmental clients in complex business and real estate transactions and commercial litigation matters.