Our Team

Attorneys

Holly Gummerson an originating partner of Gummerson & Nickolaus. She specializes in juvenile defense representing children charged with crimes from low level misdemeanors to children charged as adults. She also represents adults involved in the criminal justice system. Holly represents parents as Respondent Parent Counsel involved in the child welfare system. She is also a Guardian ad Litem in Jefferson County representing children involved in the child welfare system.

Prior to going into private practice, Holly was an attorney at the Colorado State Public Defender’s Office representing both indigent adults and children who were charged with crimes.

Holly is an experienced trial attorney with dozens of jury trials on both misdemeanor and felony offenses. She has been invited to teach on several topics including juvenile defense, rules of evidence, hearsay, and objections.

Holly graduated from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. Holly is admitted to practice law in Colorado. She is a member of the Colorado Bar Association, Juvenile Law Section, Colorado Juvenile Defender Center, and National Juvenile Defender Center.

Courtney Hughes has been an associate attorney for Gummerson & Nickolaus since November 2023. She represents parents as Respondent Parent Counsel.

Courtney is admitted to practice law in Colorado. Courtney graduated from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law in 2023. During law school, she was a student attorney in Criminal Defense Clinic ran by Student Law Office, as well as an intern at Rocky Mountain Children’s Law Center and National Association for Children. Courtney was a student attorney for the Office of Respondent Parents Counsel and represented parents in the child welfare system under the supervision of Gummerson & Nickolaus. Before law school, Courtney taught writing and history at a high school in Green Valley Ranch for five years. Courtney has a Bachelor’s Degree in International Affairs from the University of Colorado.

Jake Jankovsky has been an associate attorney for Gummerson Nickolaus Law Office since November 2020. He represents parents as Respondent Parent Counsel in the child welfare system.

Jake is admitted to practice law in Colorado. He graduated from University of Arkansas at Little Rock – William H. Bowen School of Law. During law school he worked with the Center for Arkansas Legal Services, ACLU of Arkansas, the Pulaski County Public Defenders, and the Arkansas Department of Health. His work during Law school centered around helping communities who traditionally have little representation such as disabled veterans, incarcerated trans people, and indigent adults. He also served as Articles Editor of the UA little Rock Law Review, and former member of the Arkansas Journal of Social Change and Public Service. Jake has a Bachelor’s Degree in English from Metropolitan State University of Denver.

Mr. McCullough was born and raised on the south side of Chicago. Mr. McCullough, from an early age was never afraid to do hard work and started working in the steel mills. Prior to working in the steel mills, Mr. McCullough earned extra income by shoe shining in the local drinking establishments.  Sometimes it was dangerous, but it was always interesting.  Mr. McCullough changed course and joined the United State Marine Corps.  He went to boot camp at Marine Corps Recruiting Depot, San Diego. After graduation, he was stationed at Camp Pendleton California.  He achieved the rank of Sergeant.  Mr. McCullough was selected among thousands of Marine applicants who applied for the Marine Corps Enlisted Commission Program(MECEP). In 1986, he was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the U.S Marine Corps, ultimately becoming an Intelligence Officer. While on active duty, Mr. McCullough served in Operation Desert Storm and Operation Desert Shield and served on the MEUSOC 24. Mr. McCullough achieved the rank of Captain with an Honorable Discharge 1991.

Mr. McCullough graduated from the University of Utah with Juris Doctorate degree and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration in 1996.

In 1996, Mr. McCullough began his career with the Fife Law Firm, where he ultimately became a partner and the firm was renamed to Fife and McCullough. In 2004, Mr. McCullough started the McCullough Group, focusing exclusively on criminal defense and has represented thousands of clients with cases from speedy trials to murder.

In all cases, Mr. McCullough has represented his clients zealously to protect his client’s rights against as often as necessary and opposing criminal justice system and has earned a reputation by prosecution as being tough and never afraid to fight for his clients including going to trial. Mr. McCullough has been referred to do trials for many firms who do little trial work.

Mr. McCullough carries with him today what he learned as a young Marine, hard work equals good results and mission accomplishment. Mr. McCullough will continue to represent clients charged in criminal matters.

Vanessa is a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) and  began working at Gummerson & Nickolaus in March of 2022.

Vanessa earned her bachelor's degree in political science with minors in Criminal Justice and Psychology from the University of Colorado-Denver in 2014. After working at Denver Public Schools as a paraprofessional for two years, Vanessa began pursuing her master's degree in Social Work from the University of Denver. Vanessa's graduate coursework concentration was focused on Children and Youth. Vanessa completed her first-year internship at the Denver County Department of Human Services as a Child-Protection-Ongoing Caseworker Intern. For her second-year internship, Vanessa worked with the Office of Alternate Defense Counsel (OADC) as a graduate student intern. The OADC internship solidified Vanessa's passion for client advocacy as a member of the defense team. After obtaining her graduate degree in 2019, Vanessa started contracting with OADC full-time. As a forensic social worker on criminal defense teams, Vanessa provides mitigation services which include but are not limited to requesting and reviewing pertinent records to inform holistic client understanding, conducting client and mitigation interviews to better understand a client's social history, identify and research treatment programs and out-of-home placement options, and synthesizing collected information with the established theory of defense into reports to be provided to experts for assessment purposes, to district attorneys for plea negotiations or to the Court for sentencing matters.

Since 2019, Vanessa has worked on a wide array of criminal cases ranging from misdemeanors to first-degree murder cases across the state of Colorado. Her areas of expertise include competency, I/DD, severe mental health, juvenile placement, direct file and transfer cases. Though Vanessa has experience working with adult and juvenile clients alike, she primarily works on juvenile and young adult cases. In 2023, Vanessa was picked as a field instructor to mentor and supervise OADC student interns.

Upon starting at Gummerson & Nickolaus, Vanessa expanded her area of practice to include work with the Office of Respondent Parent Counsel (ORPC) and Office of the Child's Representative (OCR) in D&N and DR cases. Vanessa is passionate about advocating for her client's holistic needs across systems, creating a space for her clients to process and recount their lived experience and supporting them in building resilience.