Enjuris Blog | Find Answers and Share Your Accident's Story

Finding answers after your accident

24/7 Free Consult   (800) 734-4134    Log in     EnglishSpanish
  • Find a Lawyer
  • Accident Resources
    • Laws by State
      • Arizona
      • California
      • Colorado
      • Florida
      • Georgia
      • Indiana
      • Montana
      • North Carolina
      • Tennessee
      • Texas
      • View all
    • Personal Injury Law
      • You’ve been hurt. Now what?
      • Do I have a claim?
      • Finding the best attorney to represent you
      • Dealing with Insurance
      • View all
    • Accident Types
      • Car accident
      • Truck Accident
      • Workplace injury
      • Wrongful death
      • View all
    • Workers’ Comp
      • Common work injuries
      • Finding the best workers’ comp lawyers
      • How workers’ comp benefits work
      • Personal injury vs. workers’ compensation
      • View all
    • Injury Guides
      • Spinal Cord/Column
      • Brain Injury
      • Occupational injuries
      • Whiplash
      • View all
    • More
      • Blog
      • Tell Your Story
      • Ask a question
      • Forms and Worksheets
      • For Students
      • About Us
  • Attorney Marketing
    • Become a partner
    • Contribute to our blog
    • Join lawyer directory
    • Partnership Opportunities
Home > Blog > Colorado > From Rebellious Teen to Successful Lawyer

From Rebellious Teen to Successful Lawyer

Contributor: Mack Babcock How can I contribute?

Meet R. Mack Babcock, Esq. – our Colorado content partner gets real with Enjuris

When asked why he became an attorney, all that Mack Babcock could do was laugh.

“I wish I had a good answer,” he said. “I’m a firm believer that most of us have no idea where we’re going in life.”

Babcock can certainly attest to that. His path in life has taken so many unexpected turns that if you’d asked him at age 17 where he would end up, he probably would have said, “working at a restaurant in Hawaii” – which he almost did after traveling there on a family vacation and going as far as to set up a job and lodging.

Instead, he woke up one morning and decided to join the United States Marine Corps.

Doing that “just felt right. [It’s a] series of decisions in your life that somehow put you where you are.”

R. Mack Babcock, Colorado Personal Injury Lawyer R. Mack Babcock, Esq.

“I am a Marine through and through…” He fell silent for a few moments, and then he said, “I owe them a lot.”

He served eight years of honorable active and reserve duty in the Marines, receiving a meritorious promotion to non-commissioned officer at the age of 21. He also received a Navy Achievement Medal for superior performance of his duties, among other accolades.

This was a complete reversal from his particularly hard teenage years, when his mother threw him out of the house. “I was a terrible teenager,” he said. “I was obnoxious.”

On to college

Babcock attended college at the University of Iowa for a degree in Business Administration in Finance, originally intending to become a futures and options trader or a stock broker. But like much of his story, this path took a different turn.

“I did sales for a number of years,” he said. When asked if he enjoyed sales, he immediately responded with an emphatic, “No.“

But he was good at it, so he kept doing it, working in medical supply sales. He followed his wife, Brighty Melton (at the time his girlfriend), who was attending graduate school at the University of Denver, to Colorado, where he then tried his hand at individual travel sales.

But it got to a point when he knew he didn’t want to stay in sales.

Babcock was tossing around the idea of an MBA or a JD, and since he had an uncle with a law degree who was very successful, he decided to go that route.

He still wanted to get into high finance and be a corporate lawyer, doing hostile takeovers and mergers and acquisitions. He had a mathematically-oriented mind, and he was determined to use it.

Law school and beyond

Babcock applied to the Sturm College of Law at University of Denver and jumped right in. It was like he hadn’t ever had difficulty in high school; he earned the highest grades in his administrative law and basic taxation classes, and he was a semi-finalist in the Hoffman Cup Trial Advocacy Competition during his final year.

He also graduated in the top 10 percent of his class and was inducted into the Order of St. Ives honor society.

On top of his coursework, Babcock also lent his frenetic energy to several part-time jobs; he clerked for the Honorable Michael A. Martinez in the Colorado District Courts for the City and County of Denver. He also worked for Anthem Blue Cross & Blue Shield, the District Attorney’s Office for the 18th Judicial District, the Denver City Attorney’s Office Employment Law Section, and several small litigation firms.

During school, he had trial classes with actual attorneys as professors. Those teachers sat him down after class one day.

As Babcock relayed the story:

“They said, ‘Hey! What are you gonna do? Do you have a job? … What’s your plan?’ I told them, ‘I’m gonna do some sort of mergers & acquisition.’ ‘Absolutely not. … It would be an absolute crime if you did not become a trial lawyer of some sort.'”

His teachers pulled some strings to help get him a job at one of the District Attorney’s offices as a student intern in the economic crime unit.

Babcock even got to prosecute some civil forfeiture cases in which, under the watchful eye of the district attorney overseeing the cases, he seized the property of drug dealers and other criminals used during the commission of a crime. He even worked with cases that involved prostitution, guns, and drug rings — which was far more exciting than the noise violations and dog barking cases that other students got to handle.

He graduated in 2002, and the job market was rough.

He decided to get back in contact with the defense firm that he’d interviewed with for a summer position during his second year of law school, Ruegsegger Thomas. The interviews had gone well — considering that when asked “Do you know what workers’ compensation is?” he replied, “That’s the thing where you get hurt at work, right?” But it had not resulted in a job.

Law schools generally don’t teach workers’ compensation at law school because it is so unique and specialized, unlike employment law or evidence. It’s one of the areas of law that is picked up on the job.

The principal attorney was impressed with his initiative this second time around and they decided to meet for coffee.

“Hey,” he asked, “whatever happened to you when we were interviewing you during your second year?”

Babcock pointed out that he had never heard back from them. The principal attorney actually had no idea they hadn’t offered him a job. He thought that Babcock had turned them down.

He was hired and given his own caseload immediately.

Unlike other types of law offices, where associates just hand papers to principal attorneys during trials, Babcock was conducting his own depositions and trials within weeks.

Workers’ compensation is so highly specialized that Babcock ended up staying with the mid-size insurance defense firm for a few years. He defended hundreds of injury claims for several large insurance companies and corporations like Pinnacol Insurance, State Farm, Hartford, Sentry Insurance, Qwest Communications, Furniture Row and others.

He then worked at one of Colorado’s premier plaintiff firms as a workers’ compensation, personal injury and insurance dispute attorney.

However, after a while he was itching to try something new. He even interviewed with the FBI for an entire year – though the Bureau never tells you why they stop considering you.

Babcock tried to leave workers’ compensation for years, but “even as I moved on, I’d end up falling back into it. It’s like the mob. Once you’re in it, you can’t get out. Workers’ comp is too weird. It’s too hard. It’s too specialized.”

He found that he could compete for a personal injury case, but his colleagues would refer all the workers’ compensation cases to him without question. Eventually he just accepted his specialty.

“I tried for years to get away from it, and now it’s made me the success that I am.”

And he has become a success.

He had become very familiar with how insurance companies treat accident victims – how faceless corporations play with people’s lives when they are at their very worst. This is part of the reason he decided to found his own practice.

The Babcock Law Firm

Babcock started his own firm in 2007 in his pajamas, and his mother, Jan Addams, moved into the unfinished basement in 2008 to work as his paralegal at a computer behind him – also in her pajamas.

Now a six-person firm, The Babcock Law Firm consists of himself, his wife (Brighty Melton), an associate attorney (Stephanie M. Tucker), as well as another paralegal and a law clerk who will soon be an attorney. Together the team covers everything from workers’ compensation to slip and falls to wrongful death cases.

Unlike other firms that will represent both plaintiffs and defendants in insurance cases (meaning insurance companies, in this respect), Babcock’s mission is to never represent insurance companies.

As his website states, “We will never represent an insurance company or other member of corporate America.” This is because of the inherent conflict of interest that straddling the fence implies. Babcock is a plaintiffs’ attorney, through and through.

A tap dancer, triathlete and family man

He is also one very proud father and husband, and when he is not working 60-plus hour weeks – and when he’s not training for half- or full-distance Ironman competitions, of which he has completed several – he is learning to dance. Both of his children, currently ages 12 and 9, are competitive dancers.

“I’m taking dance lessons!” he said with a laugh. “I take tap [lessons] with my wife once a week.”

“I’ve got a family that dances. Why sit on the sidelines?”

Babcock is one of the rare attorneys who truly enjoys his work and likes to be at the office, but he also loves to be with his family.

His life has taken some very unusual turns, but when asked if he would change anything about his past, he was adamant in saying that he would not.

“If you asked me ten years ago, fifteen years ago, twenty years ago, where I’d be, this wouldn’t be anywhere near it,” he said, the smile evident in his voice.

“Opportunities present themselves. … Me being a trial lawyer is a story along those lines.”

About Mack Babcock

More articles on job injury and workers' compensation
  • How much does a workers’ compensation lawyer cost?
  • How to prepare for a workers’ comp doctor evaluation
  • Lump sum vs. lifetime benefits for your workers’ comp settlement
  • Third-party workplace injury claims vs. workers’ compensation
  • 10 telltale signs of a bad workers’ compensation attorney
  • Carpal tunnel: A leading cause of occupational injury
  • How to prevent cold work injuries
  • Common injuries that affect nurses and other health care professionals
  • The most common types of occupational diseases
  • Tips for finding a skilled workers' compensation lawyer near you
  • Tips to help prevent heat related injuries
  • The most dangerous professions in America
  • Common reasons workers’ compensation claims are denied
  • Repetitive strain injuries in the workplace
  • How to report a workplace injury
  • Guide to Social Security Disability Benefits
  • Hearing and vision loss in the workplace

Comments

  1. Lisa Banks says

    March 28, 2017 at 12:04 pm

    Tap dancing! Well, I knew you held many talents but that’s a new one. Great to have this peek into where you’ve come from and what has made you the Mack Babcock we know today.

    I’d love to hear from your mom a bit more about what you were like as a teenager! I have two little boys myself, and the teen years already have me scared! Gulp…

    Reply
  2. Carrie Warren says

    March 28, 2017 at 12:28 pm

    What a great reminder to take things as they come. You’ve been on quite a journey, Mack.

    I was also thinking the same thing, Lisa! Definitely an uplifting story for a mother of sons. 😉

    Reply
  3. Wes Reuning says

    March 31, 2017 at 10:17 am

    Mack is a great attorney and an awesome person! I have know him for many years and count him as a friend.

    Wes

    Reply
  4. Lance Buchanan says

    March 31, 2017 at 12:06 pm

    A very well-written article.

    “I tried for years to get away from it, and now it’s made me the success that I am.”

    I love that. Life takes us down some pretty unpredictable rabbit trails, doesn’t it? What we think of a diversion from “the plan” may turn out to be an important next step.

    Thanks for sharing your story, Mack!

    Reply
  5. Jennifer Kain Kilgore says

    April 3, 2017 at 8:03 am

    Mack was one of the interesting subjects I’ve ever gotten to interview. Thanks so much for such a fun story!

    Reply

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Required fields are marked *. While our editors moderate all comments, Enjuris cannot guarantee the authenticity or accuracy of the information contained in the post. Also, any information you provide in your comment will be made public on our website. Please avoid sharing confidential and personal information.

The Babcock Law Firm LLC
The Babcock Law Firm LLC

Denver, CO personal injury law firm Representation by the right lawyer can more than double your settlement amount.
(303) 683-5033 Contact Specialty: Personal injury

Categories

  • News Stories
  • My Accident Story
  • Resources You'll Love
  • Questions & Answers
Ask a question

In Your State

AZCA CO FL GA IN MT NC TX

Attorney Authors
Enjuris Partners

Denver accident lawyer Mack Babcock

Mack Babcock
The Babcock Law Firm, CO

Texas personal injury and wrongful death lawyer Laura Brown

Laura Brown
Brown Trial Firm

George Lorenzo

George Lorenzo
Lorenzo & Lorenzo, FL

Neal Davis

Neal Davis
Neal Davis Law Firm, TX

Ben Gerber

Ben Gerber
Gerber & Holder Law, GA

Thomas H. Hinson

Thomas H. Hinson
WPMH, GA

Charles Scholle

Charles Scholle
Scholle Law, GA

Tom Murphy

Tom Murphy
Murphy Law Firm, MT

Matt Murphy

Matt Murphy
Murphy Law Firm, MT

Robert E. Wisniewski

Robert E. Wisniewski
Law Offices of Robert E. Wisniewski, AZ

Wilder Pantazis Law Group

Wilder Pantazis Law Group
NC

Contributors

  • Steven G Wigrizer
  • Terry Bryant

Free E-Books

car accident e-book

I've been in a car accident I've been in a truck accident

truck accident e-book

What happens now?

Tags

accident claim accidents arizona Atlanta attorneys bicycle accidents brain injury Car Accidents children Colorado compensation covid-19 damages Denver Florida Georgia guest post Houston insurance company landlord liability law schools lawsuits liability medical malpractice Montana motorcycle accidents negligence personal injury personal injury lawyers pharmaceutical liability premises liability product liability safety settlement slip and falls statute of limitations students Tampa Texas tort toxic tort truck accidents women workers' compensation wrongful death

What is Enjuris®?

A collection of resources to help people at a tough time in their lives. A place to share your story. A national directory of injury lawyers. Supporter of students, families, caregivers and our communities. How can I contribute?


Hire the right lawyer (800) 734-4134

Lawyer Directory
Car accident attorneys
Defective product attorneys
Personal injury attorneys
Medical malpractice attorneys
Wrongful death attorneys
Workers' compensation attorneys

Enjuris Partner Accident & Injury Lawyers

Tampa Personal Injury Attorneys
Lorenzo & Lorenzo (Tampa, Florida)
Finderson Law (Fort Wayne, Indiana)
Wilder Pantazis Law Group (Charlotte, North Carolina)
Williams & Brown (Waco, Texas)
The Babcock Law Firm (Denver, Colorado)
Gerber & Holder Law (Atlanta, Georgia)
Law Offices of Robert E. Wisniewski (Phoenix, Arizona)
Murphy Law Firm (Great Falls, Montana)
WPMH Legal (Macon, Georgia)
Scholle Law (Duluth, Georgia)


Law students

Enjuris' Student Center is a resource for all pre-law college students and current law students. Learn how to get ahead in your studies and the career field, as well be a guest contributor to our blog and apply for one of our scholarships.


Partner with us

If your goal is to help people after an accident or injury – or to prevent them in the first place – we'd love to hear from you! We look to work with educators, healthcare and recovery organizations, insurance providers, law firms and other organizations. Get in touch to see how we can work together. Learn more...


Are you a personal injury lawyer?

Login Add your Firm Lawyer online marketing Free resources for attorneys

Contact us today to get involved.
Services for attorneys
Personal Injury Law Firms Directory
Directory guidelines
Law firm SEO quote
Terms of Use



SEO Advantage®, Inc.    SEOLegal Division, Lawyer Marketing    3690 West Gandy Blvd., Suite 444    Tampa, FL 33611    Contact us today

Enjuris is a platform dedicated to helping people who are dealing with life-altering accidents and injuries. We support students, families, caregivers and communities with resources, personal stories and a national directory of injury lawyers. Read more about Enjuris.


Copyright © 2021 Enjuris.com. All rights reserved. Terms and conditions The accuracy, completeness, adequacy or currency of the content is not warranted or guaranteed. Our site and services are not substitutes for the advices or services of an attorney. We recommend you consult a lawyer or other appropriate professional if you want legal advice. Privacy policy.

SEOLegal.com