Jim Martell

I have deep roots in Fort Collins.  I am a third generation native Coloradoan.  My grandfather, Ace Gillett, was born in Sterling, Colorado.  My mother was born in Fort Morgan, Colorado and moved with her parents to Fort Collins in 1940.  Ace Gillett owned the hotel and restaurant business known as the Northern Hotel and Ace Gillett’s Coffee Shop.  He subsequently acquired the Armstrong Hotel.  My father came to Fort Collins with the Grafe-Callahan Construction Company to build the dams that created Horsetooth Reservoir, the northerly most reservoir of the Colorado-Big Thompson Water Project.  He stayed at the Northern Hotel where he met my Mother.  My parents moved to Kremmling, Colorado with the Construction Company to construct the dams that created the reservoirs forming the western slope water collection portion of the Colorado-Big Thompson Water Project.  I was born in Kremmling.  We moved back to Fort Collins in 1953.  I have two sisters who also live in the Fort Collins area.  

I graduated from Poudre High School in Fort Collins in 1968, tenth in a class of 289.  I attended Occidental College in Los Angeles for a year and a half before returning to Fort Collins, graduating from Colorado State University in June, 1972 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology with High Distinction.
 
I graduated from Washington University School of Law in Saint Louis, Missouri in the top 15% of my class in May, 1977.  While in law school I wrote for one of the two law reviews, the Urban Law Annual, and had a Comment on “Employment Discrimination and Minority Hiring Goals” and a Note on “School Finance Reform” published in the Annual.   I was elected Editor in Chief of the law review my third year.  

I was admitted to the Colorado State and Federal Courts in October of 1977 and the United States Supreme Court in May, 1989.

Over the past several years I have taken one class per semester at Colorado State University in Philosophy.  I presented four papers at various American Philosophical Conferences and one paper at a conference in Prague on topics in the area of Applied Ethics.  Three have been published.  I also wrote an unpublished paper on Pacifism that has been cited in two books.

I have been a member of the Board of Directors of the Colorado State University Foundation since 1987 and served as the Board Chair from 1991 to 2021.  Other Boards that I have been a member of include: the Advisory Board of Colorado State University Art Museum, 2011-2014 (President of the Advisory Board 2013-2014); the Family Center/La Familia 1996-2012 and 2018-2021 (President 2012-2013); Open Stage Theater Board 2007-2012; the Downtown Development Authority of Fort Collins, 1988-1994 (Chairman 1991-1993); One West Art Center, Fort Collins, Colorado, February 1993-1995 (Chairman 1994-1995);  the Affordable Housing Consortium 1993-1995; and the Museum of Contemporary Art 2006-2007.  Although I am obviously invested in the arts, I am honored to have had the opportunity to work with the Colorado State University Foundation and the Family Center, a bilingual early childhood education center in Fort Collins.

I lettered in golf at Poudre High School and Occidental College, ran 5 marathons during the late 1980s including the Boston Marathon, and participated in the Age-Group World Duathlon (run-bike-run) Champions in 1995 (Cancun, Mexico) and 1996 (Ferrara, Italy).  Now I do yoga.

My spouse, Christy, and her family moved from Nederland, Colorado to Fort Collins in 1949.  They started Sterling Sand and Gravel Company and Sterling Paving Company.  Christy received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1971 and a Masters of Fine Arts degree in 1988, both from Colorado State University.  She is emerita faculty from Colorado State University having taught in the Art Department for more than 20 years.  Christy and I met in high school.  We have now been married for more than 50 years.  We have no children, but have a number of wonderful nieces and nephews.

I have represented Housing Catalyst (formerly the Fort Collins Housing Authority) for more than 25 years. I am honored to have the opportunity to assist Housing Catalyst and other nonprofit entities in developing affordable housing in our community.

Kate Belford

I am a civil attorney specializing in real estate and property litigation.  I grew up in Fort Collins and graduated summa cum laude from Colorado State University.  While at CSU, I found a passion in politics and the process of conflict resolution. I spent much of my time at CSU as a member of the student Senate and a trained public facilitator with the CSU Center for Public Deliberation. 

In 2009, I had the incredible honor of being a White House Intern under President Obama in the first class of interns during his tenure. I went on to law school, during which I interned with the Rocky Mountain Victim Law Center and worked as a research fellow for The Nature Conservancy in Bogotá, Colombia.

After getting my law degree from the University of Colorado in Boulder in 2013, I did what anyone would do and moved to Hawaii to learn how to surf and perhaps become a lawyer there.  While I discovered I am not a world-class surfer, I did have great success as an attorney. In my first four years of practice, I settled multiple complex cases and won four appeals in the Intermediate Court of Appeals of the State of Hawaii. 

After the birth of our first child, my spouse and I relocated back to Colorado to be closer to family and the mountains.  I have been practicing with Jim ever since. I love rock climbing and running, and have completed four marathons.

Janae Tyler

I grew up in Colorado Springs and met my husband David during high school there. While our parents still live in Colorado Springs, our siblings have spread out - David’s older brother works for Amazon web services in California, and my older brother and his wife are attorneys in Denver.

David and I both went to college here in northern Colorado and fell in love with Fort Collins. We were married in 2018 and bought our first home in 2019. In early 2021, we (like many during the pandemic) decided that we needed a furry friend to keep us company and adopted our Labrador Retriever mix, Mouse.

Before arriving at Belford & Martell, I had served in a number of administrative support roles from a program director/staff supervisor at Girl Scouts of Colorado summer camps, to an administrative assistant at a property management company, to accounts receivable officer at a lumberyard. After many years of searching for an occupation that allows me to fulfill my passion for customer service but maintains a healthy work/life balance, I have finally found a home as the office manager/legal assistant here at Belford & Martell. It has been a privilege to work with Kate and Jim since 2021.

In addition to my work, I am currently pursuing my Associate’s Degree and a certificate in Paralegal Studies and anticipate graduating in May of 2025.