Denver City Attorney Kristin Bronson was selected on Thursday as one of 2020’s top 25 most powerful women in the state.

The awards were handed out at the Hilton Denver City Center during the 8th annual Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce event, honoring women who “operate at the highest level of business performance and community leadership.”

Bronson was appointed to the high-profile role by Denver Mayor Michael Hancock in October 2016. She manages a law firm of more than 220 staffers and advises the mayor. She also makes the final call on critical legal decisions facing the city, including the recent decision to appeal Denver County Judge Johnny C. Barajas’ ruling to ban the city’s urban camping ban.

Hancock called her “a brilliant and innovative lawyer” when he appointed her.

Bronson grew up in Pensacola, Florida, and studied American government at the University of Virginia. She later worked in Washington, D.C., for four years as a legislative assistant to former U.S. Senator Bob Graham, a Democrat from her hometown.

She then went on to law school at the University of Colorado in Boulder before spending two decades years as a partner in the Denver office of Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie LLP.   

“I was a public servant before I was a lawyer,” she told the Denver Post in 2016. “While I’ve spent 20 years in private practice, I’m eager to return to public service.”

City Attorney’s Office spokesman Ryan Luby tweeted his congratulations to Bronson on Thursday night and called her “easily one of the hardest-working women” he’s ever worked with.

The Colorado Women’s Chamber award was far from being her first. Bronson was listed in The Best Lawyers in America for Real Estate Litigation and Colorado Super Lawyers. She received the Richard Marden Davis Award for her “civic, cultural, educational and charitable leadership,” and was also named in the Denver Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 list.

As one of the highest-paid advisers in the city, Bronson makes $196,650.

“It’s a very important job, and I’m encouraged and excited about the challenge,” she said in an earlier interview. “I’m not deterred about the politics.”

Bronson lives in Denver with her husband and two daughters.