Benjamin Alexander Kahn
(303) 377-7890
ben@craniumgroup.com
Benjamin Alexander Kahn is the founding member of the Cranium Group. Ben is able to manage most business or real estate transactions, oversee any civil litigation matters, and handle any other legal matters the Group might advise on. Ben has more than two decades of experience in the practice of law, and is the owner and operator of several other small businesses.
Ben received his undergraduate BA degree with a double major in History and American Studies from Tufts University in 1992, completing the Tufts in Washington program and graduating cum laude and summa cum honori in thesi. During college, Ben worked for famed Indian law firm Sonosky, Chambers, Sachse & Endreson. He then attended both the University of Michigan Law School and the University of Colorado School of Law, graduating from Michigan in 1995. During law school, Ben worked for two elite private law firms in the West, the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund in Alaska, the Colorado office of the National Wildlife Federation, and the Environmental Protection Agency in Denver. His training work focused on water, natural resources, environmental, Indian law, real estate and commercial litigation issues. Ben then clerked for the Honorable George E. Lohr on the Colorado Supreme Court and completed a Bates Fellowship in New Zealand.
Ben started his private practice career at the litigation boutique Kennedy & Christopher, where he specialized in complex insurance coverage matters and the defense of legal and medical professionals. Ben then joined Brownstein Hyatt Farber Shreck and spent twelve years at the firm in the Litigation Department, including seven years as a Partner. His practice there focused on commercial litigation, real estate, natural resources, and insurance. He also defended products liability cases across the country for a major sports product distributor.
Ben subsequently joined The Conundrum Group and spent eight years at the firm as a Partner. At the firm, his practice remained focused on commercial litigation, business transactions, real estate, natural resources, and insurance. He also acted as the City Attorney for the City of Salida from 2016 to 2018.
Ben also founded Bliss Mountain LLC in 2014, and it is now the vehicle for his work as a neutral mediator and for internal investigations. Bliss Mountain is the sister company of the Cranium Group.
Ben has practiced in more than twenty state courts on a pro hac vice basis and more than ten federal courts throughout the country. He is admitted in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado, the Tenth Circuit United States Court of Appeals, and the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals. He has handled more than a dozen appeals in Colorado and elsewhere. He is a member of the Heart of the Rockies Bar Association and the Colorado Bar Association.
As a business owner, Ben has an acute understanding of the legal needs of small businesses and entrepreneurs. Ben formed Park Hill Property & Capital Holdings, LLC in 2004 to buy at risk historic buildings in arts districts, and preserve their existence and historic integrity while renovating them for modern commercial use. PHPCH invests in certain numismatics as well. Ben also formed Los Diablos Verdes, LLC in 2007 to invest in commercial real estate in the surfing mecca of Sayulita, Mexico and raw land outside of Breckenridge in Alma, Colorado. In addition, LDV has invested in a variety of collectibles. In 2016, Ben formed Buttonball Ventures, LLC for the purpose of building the first Clay Chapman designed brick masonry home West of the Mississippi. Buttonball Ventures also invested in the development of adjacent land on the Little Arkansas River. Most recently, Ben formed Tremarctos, LLC in 2017 and developed a parcel of blighted riverfront land into a verdant wildlife habitat and minor subdivision. Along the way, Ben also played an integral role in the rollout and expansion of a thriving yoga business and spearheaded a Trust’s renovation of two historic miner homesteads. Ben therefore has experienced everything that a small business owner might face in getting out of the gates and maintaining business success. These first hand experiences uniquely qualify him to advise and counsel small and growing businesses with legal needs.
Ben exemplifies the Cranium Group’s commitment to community service. He volunteered on the Fort Peck Sioux and Assiniboine Reservation in 1990 and was a licensed disc jockey on a community radio station at Tufts from 1990 to 1992. He served as a Special Assistant Attorney General defending state doctors in 1996, and was a Referral Attorney for the Colorado Lawyers for the Arts from 1997 until 2011. He served on the Board of Governors for Greater Park Hill Community, Inc. from 2004 through 2007 as well, and was the Chair of the GPHC Property and Community Planning Committees during his GPHC Board tenure. At GPHC, Ben participated as the GPHC representative in hundreds of property zoning and licensing applications and on matters involving the GPHC Art Fair, the Denver School for the Arts, Johnson and Wales University, and the creation of the Art Garage and Bike Depot. In 2005, he also was a member of the AIPAC Political Leadership Initiative. Ben was a participating member of the Tufts Alumni Admissions Program from 1997 until 2014 as well. He also was a member of the Board of the Colorado Business Committee for the Arts from 2004 to 2012, and he was a member of the Board of Guidestone in 2012 and 2013. In 2013, Ben served as pro bono court appointed counsel for a local woman in a child custody dispute. From 2013 to 2016, Ben represented a variety of local government officials on conflicted matters. And from 2016 to 2018, Ben served as the City Attorney for the City of Salida. All told, Ben has donated or volunteered hundreds of hours of his personal time to a variety of community matters and will continue to do so.
Ben grew up in Connecticut, and as a New Englander he spent his weekends and summers sailing in Long Island Sound and the Atlantic Ocean out of marinas based in Mystic and Noank. Ben still has family ties in Connecticut and New York, and spends every August at a family camp in the Belgrade Lakes region of Maine. Ben also has deep ties to Mexico, where he spends a good deal of time each year and maintains a residence.
Ben practices Judaism and participates in Engaged Buddhism, mindfulness and meditation as a member of the Compassionate Dharma Cloud Monastery Sangha led by Thay Tinh Man, who was taught by Thich Nhat Hanh in the Plum Village Tradition.
In Colorado, Ben likes to ski, surf, hike, cook, float the river, and spend time with his family, as well as make art and play music in his studio.
