Craig Shaffer

1954 - 2018

U.S. Magistrate Judge Craig Baskerville Shaffer (ret.) A remarkable man has passed from this earth. Craig was a selfless person who lived only for others - his family, friends, clients, students, mentees, colleagues - and the public good. He achieved much before losing his battle with brain cancer. Craig was born in Key West, Florida. He spent most of his childhood living near naval bases on the east coast because his father, Guy, was a naval officer and submarine commander. Craig joined the Navy while in law school at Tulane. After graduating magna cum laude, he was stationed in Naples, Italy where he prosecuted and defended criminal cases all over Europe, North Africa, and the Mediterranean. He finished his active military duty as the chief law clerk for the Military Court of Appeals in Washington, DC. Craig then spent seven years at the U.S. Department of Justice where he specialized in prosecuting the Ku Klux Klan as a federal civil right prosecutor. In 1991, Craig moved to Colorado with his wife, Kathleen Nalty, whom he met at the DOJ. He practiced law for 10 years at two law firms in Denver, serving as the managing partner at one of them. In January 2001, Craig was appointed as a U.S. Magistrate Judge for the District of Colorado. He retired in May 2018 due to his illness. Craig also taught at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law as an adjunct professor for 14 years. Craig achieved high levels of excellence as a lawyer and judge. He received several commendations as a government lawyer in the Navy and at the DOJ. As a judge, he wrote a seminal opinion in e-discovery and became a national expert on the topic. Craig was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award in January 2018 for his ground-breaking work in this area. He was also a thought leader in civil procedure and was selected by the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court to serve on the Judicial Conference's Advisory Committee on Civil Rules. The true measure of a man, however, is not what he is expected to do or paid to do but what he does when no one is looking, because it is right, just, and needed. Behind the scenes Craig mentored dozens of students, particularly those from diverse backgrounds. Craig volunteered with the Colorado Lawyers' Hate Violence Task Force and the Denver Urban Debate League. He established a scholarship for diverse law students and supported the annual state high school diversity conference. Craig was also constantly seeking ways to improve the legal profession: he served on the U.S. Magistrate Judge's Diversity Committee, as a member of the Judicial Advisory Board for the Sedona Conference, and the Advisory Board for the Georgetown University Law Center's Advanced e-Discovery Institute. His greatest joy in life came from being with his two sons, Ryan and Nick Shaffer. In his free time, Craig loved to hike and sail and was happiest doing both with family and friends. Craig's Celebration of Life service will be held on Monday, December 17th at The Mile High Station, 2027 West Colfax, with a reception at 4:30 p.m. and the program at 5:00 p.m. Donations in honor of Craig can be sent to the Denver Urban Debate League, a nonprofit supporting inner-city youth through speech and debate, located at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, 2255 East Evans Avenue, Denver, CO 80210. Photo courtesy of Law Week Colorado.