Erik Estrada

Erik Estrada is an Assistant Teaching Professor at the Leeds School of Business. He currently teaches the following courses: Business Law (BCOR 2301), Advanced Business Law, and World of Business (BCOR 1015). Additionally, Erik is a corporate attorney, entrepreneur, business executive, board member, and published textbook author. His career has focused on the intersection of business, leadership, philanthropy, and the law. Throughout his professional career, Erik has also been able to fulfill his passion for teaching and being in the classroom.

Previously, Erik was a Senior Corporate Attorney at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati (WSGR), one of the best law firms in the world, headquartered next to Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, with notable clients such as Apple, Amazon, Cloudflare, Google, Tesla, LinkedIn, Lyft, Netflix, and Salesforce. In that role he advised and supported entrepreneurs and high-growth companies on a wide range of corporate and transactional matters. Prior to WSGR, Erik served as an executive and senior in-house attorney for two Fortune 500 companies and as the General Counsel for one of the nation’s largest corporate foundations. Erik began his legal career at Davis Graham & Stubbs LLP.

Erik is actively involved with the Nicholas Dante Badami Office of Experiential Learning (BOEL) at Leeds, where he draws on his experience counseling world-class entrepreneurs at Wilson Sonsini to help guide students engaged in real-world consulting-style projects with businesses and nonprofits. Through BOEL he supports the office’s mission of bridging classroom learning with practical impact, mentoring student teams as they tackle authentic business challenges and develop career-ready skills.

Prior to attending law school, Erik served as a Grants Program Officer for the Boettcher Foundation and as a Program Director & Senior Fellow for the El Pomar Foundation, where he directed the nation’s second largest youth grant-making program. He now serves on the Board of Directors for El Pomar Foundation. In 2015, Erik received the "40 Under 40" Award from the Denver Business Journal and the Outstanding Lecturer Award from the University of Colorado. In 2017, then-Governor and now-U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper named Erik an inaugural Colorado Governor’s Fellow.

As a Visiting Professor at the University of Denver College of Law, Erik wrote a 300-page textbook that was published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group. His textbook was named a #1 best-seller in the Business Law category on Amazon and is currently taught at Harvard Law School and American University Law School, among other notable universities. In 2002, Erik bicycled 4,000 miles from San Francisco to Washington, D.C. to raise money and awareness for people with disabilities.

​EDUCATION​

●      Boston University School of Law, LL.M., With Highest Honors, 2013

• University of Denver College of Law, J.D., Chancellor’s Scholar, 2009
• University of Colorado School of Public Affairs, M.P.A., Outstanding Graduate Student, 2006
• Texas A&M University School of Government and Public Service, Graduate Fellow, 2004​
• University of Colorado-Boulder, B.A., President's Leadership Class Scholar, 2002

●      University of Colorado School of Public Affairs, Ph.D. (In Progress)

FEDERAL JUDICIAL CLERKSHIP​

●      The Honorable Robert Blackburn, U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado​​