Stephen A. Bain and Joi G. Kush have been honored with the 2026 Outstanding State Chair Award from the Fellows of the American Bar Foundation. Bain and Kush are the Fellows State Cochairs of Colorado. They will be recognized during the 70th Annual Fellows Awards Reception and Banquet, which will be held in San Antonio, Texas, on Friday, February 6.
The Outstanding State Chair Award is given annually to an ABF Fellows State Chair who has demonstrated dedication to the work of the ABF and to the mission of the Fellows through exceptional efforts at the state level. Bain and Kush are recognized for their outstanding contributions as State Chairs of Colorado.
“We are privileged and pleased to have Stephen A. Bain and Joi G. Kush as State Cochairs of Colorado,” said Chair of the Fellows of the American Bar Foundation Jennifer L. Parent. “Their leadership and commitment to the mission of the Fellows are exemplary and very worthy of this award.”
Stephen A. Bain is a retired attorney who practiced primarily in the areas of environmental and natural resources law. After studying history at Yale and law at Cornell, Bain returned to his home state of Colorado to practice environmental and natural resources law with Holland & Hart. In 1994, he and his wife, Lisa, joined the US Peace Corps in the Czech Republic, where they worked as consultants for the Czech Ministry of Environment. After his time in the Peace Corps, Bain joined Welborn Sullivan Meck & Tooley’s office in Almaty, Kazakhstan to work on post-Soviet privatizations. Two years later, Bain returned to the firm’s main office in Denver where he continued practicing environmental and natural resources law until his retirement in 2023.
Bain was a Distinguished Natural Resources Practitioner in Residence at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, where he taught International Petroleum Law for several years. He is the Managing Editor and a Contributing Author for Environmental Regulation of Colorado Real Property, a publication of the Colorado Bar Association. Bain has served on the Board of Governors for the Colorado Bar Association, on the Executive Committee of the Colorado Mountain Club, and as President of the Colorado Mountain Club Foundation. Bain currently serves on the board of Reach Out and Read Colorado and on the Advisory Council for the Association for Native American Sacred Trees and Places.
“It has been an honor and a pleasure working as Colorado State Chair, first with Howard Kenison and more recently with Joi Kush,” said Bain. “Both of them are diligent and caring attorneys. The American Bar Foundation’s long-term vision to improve legal processes and institutions through promoting important and innovative research in areas as wide-ranging as international anti-corruption, tenant protections, and access to justice continues to inspire.”
Joi G. Kush is Of Counsel at Mulliken Weiner Berg & Jolivet. She specializes in domestic relations, with a practice that encompasses a wide range of areas, including complex custody disputes, high-net-worth marital estates, and post-decree issues.
Kush earned her BA in philosophy and international studies from the University of Denver in 2007 and her JD from Albany Law School in 2010. During her time in law school, Kush was a judicial intern for the Honorable Robert Littlefield at the US Federal Bankruptcy Court and a legal fellow in the Vehicular Crimes Unit of the Albany County District Attorney’s Office. She also served as a student editor for both Albany Government Law Review and Government, Law and Policy Journal, a publication of the New York State Bar Association.
Kush has lived and worked outside of the United States in a diverse range of locations, including Beijing, China; Tokyo, Japan; Chiang Mai, Thailand; and Hanoi, Vietnam. She has been honored as a top family/domestic relations lawyer by Colorado Springs Magazine since 2020, and she was one of seven attorneys selected for the ColoradoBiz 2025 Family Law Powerlist. Since 2022, Kush has been recognized as a Super Lawyer, and she was recognized as a Rising Star from 2018 to 2022. Kush has been named a top family law attorney by US News and World Report Best Lawyers since 2019.
“The mission of the ABF is rooted in the belief that justice is best served when it is informed by facts and interdisciplinary insight,” said Kush. “As Cochair, I am proud to support a community of scholars whose cutting-edge research bridges the gap between the academy and society, ensuring that our legal institutions evolve to meet the challenges of a changing world.”
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About the American Bar Foundation
The American Bar Foundation (ABF) is the world’s leading research institute for the empirical and interdisciplinary study of law. The ABF seeks to expand knowledge and advance justice through innovative, interdisciplinary, and rigorous empirical research on law, legal processes, and legal institutions. To further this mission the ABF will produce timely, cutting-edge research of the highest quality to inform and guide the legal profession, the academy, and society in the United States and internationally. The ABF’s primary funding is provided by the American Bar Endowment and the Fellows of the American Bar Foundation.