Of Counsel

Denver

Direct: 303.253.6759

Office: 303.253.6740

kmix@buchalter.com

Bar Admissions

Colorado

Overview

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Kristen Mix is Of Counsel in the Firm’s Denver location and a member of the Litigation practice group. Judge Mix was appointed to the federal bench in 2007 and retired in August 2023. Prior to her judicial service, Judge Mix was recognized as a top employment lawyer by Chambers U.S.A. and named one of the top twenty-five women lawyers in Colorado by 5280 Magazine.

Judge Mix served on the Executive Committee of the Federal Magistrate Judges Association from 2017 to 2021 and as President of the FMJA from 2021 to 2022. As a member of the Sedona Conference and the Sedona Advisory Board, she assisted in drafting the Commentary on Possession, Custody and Control of documents under Fed. R. Civ. P. 34 and the Social Media Primer. In 2023 Judge Mix was appointed to the Global Advisory Council of the Electronic Discovery Research Module. 

In 2006, Judge Mix was appointed by Governor Bill Owens to serve on the Colorado Commission on Family Medicine and was Chair of the Commission from 2013-2017. During that time, she was a member and Chair of the Board of Directors of the Colorado Institute of Family Medicine.

Judge Mix has taught at the Colorado School of Law and the University of Denver College of Law as an adjunct professor. She is available now to set Mediation/Arbitration/Special Master hearings beginning April 13, 2026. 

Admissions

  • Colorado

Education

  • University of Colorado School of Law, J.D.
  • Middlebury College, B.A. in English, cum laude

  • Recognized as a top employment lawyer by Chambers U.S.A. and named one of the top twenty-five women lawyers in Colorado by 5280 Magazine in 2006-2007

  • United States Magistrate Judge – United States District Court for the District of Colorado from 2007 to August 2023
  • Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Colorado College of Law and University of Denver Sturm College of Law
  • Served as a member of the Federal Magistrate Judges Association’s Executive Committee from 2017 to 2021 and as President of the FMJA in 2021-2022
  • Past Chair of the Colorado Judicial Coordinating Council
  • Served on the Colorado Access to Justice Commission from 2019-2022
  • Member of the Sedona Conference. Assisted in drafting the Commentary on Possession, Custody and Control of documents under Fed. R. Civ. P. 34 and the Social Media Primer
  • Serves on Sedona’s Advisory Board
  • Appointed to the Global Advisory Council of EDRM, the Electronic Discovery Research Module
  • Served on the Judicial Conference of the United States’ Committee on the Administration of the Magistrate Judge System
  • Appointed by Governor Bill Owens to serve on the Colorado Commission on Family Medicine and as Chair of the Commission from 2013 to 2017
  • Served as a member and Chair of the Board of Directors of the Colorado Institute of Family Medicine from 2013 to 2018
  • Co-founder of the Colorado Intellectual Property American Inn of Court and served on the Executive Committee of the Sonia Sotomayor American Inn of Court
  • Appointed by Governor Jared Polis to the Commission on Judicial Discipline Adjudicative Panel
  • Serves as Chair of the Commission on Judicial Discipline Rule-Making Committee

  • Founded the Federal Pro Se Clinic in 2018, which has served more than 250 pro se litigants to date
  • Continues to serve as Co-chair of the Court’s Pro Se Prisoner Task Force
  • Created MixDIP, an annual public-service internship program for local, diverse second and third-year law students to obtain internships with public employers and non-profits in the Denver metropolitan area