Judge French has spent more than 45 years as a trial lawyer, district court judge and mediator.

He has more than 40 years experience as a trial lawyer, trial court judge and mediator on professional negligence cases, including work at a firm where most of his work was on professional negligence cases.  He has more than 40 years experience handling serious personal injury cases as a lawyer, judge and mediator.  He has many years experience on commercial litigation cases, substantial trial experience on Endangered Species Act cases and significant trial experience on intellectual property cases.

Judge French is a Colorado native.  He graduated from Colorado State University, was a three year letterman on the football team and was selected as a first team football Academic All American in 1969. He graduated from the University of Colorado School of Law and worked for the Office of the District Attorney in Denver for a number of years after graduation from law school.  He had his own firm in Fort Collins, Colorado, and then served as a district court judge in Fort Collins for nine years before he retired from the bench.  He began working for JAG as a mediator and arbiter four years ago.

In 2018, Judge French was awarded the Judicial Excellence Award by the Colorado Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates.  He has lectured and written many articles on trial practice.  He has recently written an article published by the American Judges Association about procedural fairness and how judges can increase litigants’ perceptions of just treatment.