Tim Macdonald was hired as the Legal Director of the ACLU of Colorado in March 2023. Before that, Tim was a trial and appellate lawyer at Arnold & Porter for 24 years. Tim also clerked for Emilio M. Garza on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in 1998 and had a fellowship with the Legal Resources Centre in Cape Town, South Africa in 1997, where he assisted human rights lawyers on land restitution, housing, and environmental matters. He served as the managing partner of Arnold & Porter's Denver office for more than a decade. In private practice, Tim was a committed cooperating counsel for the ACLU from the beginning of his career and led the trial team in 2022 on behalf of peaceful protestors shot by Denver police following the murder of George Floyd. Tim is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and was selected as Denver Lawyer of the Year for Appellate Practice by Best Lawyers in America in 2020 and 2015. Tim co-founded two legal night clinics serving low-income families that have served more than 20,000 people since their founding in 2005. Tim has been recognized as a Top 50/Top 100 Colorado Super Lawyer and Law Week Colorado named him one of the Lawyers of the Year in 2014 and 2021. He is a Commissioner on the Colorado Access to Justice Commission, a Trustee on the Legal Aid Foundation, and has served on the boards of numerous community organizations.
Tim graduated magna cum laude and Order of the Coif from the University of Michigan Law School in 1996, where he served on the Editorial Board of the Law Review. He also earned a Master's degree in Public Policy from the University of Michigan School of Public Policy while attending law school. Tim earned his undergraduate degree from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, magna cum laude, with a degree in political science and a minor in mathematics and statistics.
When not litigating civil rights cases, Tim loves to spend his time in the mountains or traveling (or both), preferably on a bicycle.