Rebecca Love Kourlis served Colorado’s judiciary for nearly two decades, first as a trial court judge and then as a justice of the Colorado Supreme Court.  In 2006, she resigned from the Supreme Court to found IAALS, the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System, an applied research institute dedicated to improving delivery of justice.  She resigned from IAALS in 2019, and together with two other attorneys has now started Decisioncraft ADR, a boutique alternative dispute resolution firm where she does arbitration, mediation, and public policy dispute resolution.

Her legal expertise is rich and diverse. She began her career with the law firm of Davis Graham & Stubbs, and then started a small practice in rural northwest Colorado where she worked in natural resources, water, public lands, oil and gas, and mineral law. She later affiliated with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in their Denver office.

In 1987, she was appointed as a trial court judge with a general jurisdiction docket. She served as Water Judge and later as Chief Judge of the district. She was appointed to the Colorado Supreme Court in 1995.

Becky has received numerous individual honors, including the American Bar Association (ABA) Justice Center’s 2012 John Marshall Award, the ABA Judicial Division’s 2009 Robert B. Yegge Award for Outstanding Contribution in the Field of Judicial Administration, and the 2008 Regis College Civis Princeps citizenship award. She was honored by the Girl Scouts of Colorado as a 2006 Woman of Distinction, and was chosen by the League of Women Voters of Colorado to receive their 2015 Leader of Democracy award. Becky and her husband Tom were named the 2010 Citizens of the West by the National Western Stock Show.

Becky earned a B.A. in English from Stanford University with distinction and a JD from Stanford University Law School. She and her husband, Tom—a businessman and cattle and sheep rancher—have three children. She is a Colorado native and daughter of former Gov. John A. Love.   She actually lived in the Governor’s Residence at the Boettcher Mansion when she was growing up, and she remembers meeting Mae Boettcher as a child.

Community Involvement:

• Becky has served on various boards over time, primarily related either to education or to our justice system.  At present, in addition to the Boettcher Foundation, she is active with the Colorado Forum, The Graland Country Day School Foundation Board, and the Empower Funds, Inc. Board.