Herbert A. (Chip) Delap


Herbert A. (Chip) Delap began his legal career in 1972 with the Denver District Attorney’s Organized Crime Strike Force. He then moved on to practice with one of Denver’s then oldest law firms; Grant, Shafroth, Toll & McHendric, whose members had, over the years, includes several important individuals in Colorado history such as Governor John F. Shafroth. Mr. Delap then had the opportunity to practice with other law firms of which he was a named partner or shareholder, spending over 16 years with Dufford & Brown, P.C. He has over 40 years-worth of experience and practices in the areas of commercial litigation with wide ranging involvement with business disputes, entity formation, corporate governance and structuring, asset protection, and real estate transactions as well as quiet title and partition actions; boundary disputes and foreclosures. His real estate sub-specialties include mining claims location and disputes, transactional matters and operations; he has significant involvement with oil and gas operations, financing, AMI, royalties, joint operating agreements, joint bill disputes, title issues, purchase and sale, surface use, regulatory permitting and mid-stream contracting.
Because real estate and natural resource interests are commodity or market driven, Mr. Delap has been involved in numerous complex bankruptcy matters as counsel for creditors,
debtors and creditor committees in Chapter 7 and Chapter 11 cases as well as representing state court receivers and negotiating loan work-outs.
Mr. Delap has extensive experience with complex trust and probate administration and planning as they relate to individuals and for the purposes of business succession.
Mr. Delap earned a B.A. in Political Science and Economics from Lewis & Clark College; was an exchange student at University College, London and London School of Economics and received his J.D. degree from the University of Denver, College of Law, where he was a member of the Denver Law Journal Board of Editors.
Mr. Delap is a Vietnam War Veteran having served with the 82nd Airborne Division and 1st Cavalry Division.