麻豆影院

麻豆影院 junior builds top-10 website for alumnus father鈥檚 law firm

Patrick Mulligan鈥檚 father may have transferred from 麻豆影院 to graduate from the University of Denver, but his continuing love for Buffs football paved the way for two generations of CU students.

鈥淲e started going to games when I was a little kid,鈥� says Patrick (PoliSci鈥�84; Law鈥�87), who grew up in Wheat Ridge with four siblings. 鈥淲e didn鈥檛 have a lot of extra money, but we all got to go occasionally. It was a big treat.鈥�

Mulligan and two brothers attended CU, as have Patrick鈥檚 three sons, including Colin, 21, currently a junior who, like his father, is a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

In 1982, Patrick started the first springboard diving and master鈥檚 swimming classes at the CU Rec Center, a job he kept through his first year of law school.

He began his career as a deputy public defender with four Colorado jurisdictions. He opened his own his own criminal-defense law firm as a sole practitioner in 1994. In 2013, he invited his cousin, Marshall Breit, to join the firm, which is now known as .

鈥淲e鈥檙e still trying to help people who are often mentally ill, mentally challenged, substance addicted or abusers, or frequently, all of the above,鈥� Patrick says. 鈥淭hey are the part of society that people don鈥檛 want to recognize or care about.鈥�

He credits his parents for teaching their children to put public service first. His two sisters work in public education, his older brother is director of a public health-care clinic for American Indians in California, and his younger brother also served as a deputy public defender.听听

Colin is Patrick鈥檚 youngest son, and the third to attend CU. After declaring as an economics major, Colin decided to pick up a minor. His older brother Brian (Psych/Adv鈥�15) suggested he check out the Technology, Arts and Media program, about which his friends had raved. After taking a few introductory TAM classes, Colin was raving, too, especially about a course in web development and design.

鈥淚 taught myself enough where eventually I could build good websites and start making a few bucks,鈥� he says. He joined with a friend and fellow TAM enthusiast Troy Fairbanks to start a small design and media company, .

Poking around his father鈥檚 website (), Colin was less than impressed.

鈥淚t had a poor color scheme and the spacing was strange and uneven,鈥� Colin says. 鈥淭he navigation system was awkward and hard to use, and there were probably 50 pages on the site鈥攖hat鈥檚 kind of ridiculous; nobody is going to navigate 50 pages.鈥�

When he approached his father with his opinion, Patrick didn鈥檛 disagree.

鈥淚 know what a computer is, and maybe where the on button is,鈥� he says with a laugh. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 about as techy as I get.鈥�

So Colin offered to redesign the site to make it more creative, interesting, lively and fun, all while saving the firm money. 听

鈥淲e thought, 鈥楬e鈥檚 smart, he鈥檚 enthusiastic, we鈥檙e confident in him. Let鈥檚 let him run with it,鈥欌�� Patrick says.

Colin handled design and coding for a custom site, while Fairbanks, a media-production major, used his video skills to create a clean, enticing landing page with slow-motion video of the two nattily dressed partners.

鈥淵ou want to hit your audience with information you want them to know immediately,鈥� Colin says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a clean, modern, professional website that conveys (the firm鈥檚) message simply and elegantly. 鈥� The video really plays a huge role with an immersive audio-visual experience. You click and get the credibility and ethos of their firm.鈥�

鈥淲e were immediately enthusiastic about it,鈥� Patrick says.

Cynics will say that鈥檚 what a father has to say about his son鈥檚 work, but in this case there are more than Mulligans raving about the site: In February Lawyerist.com named MulliganBreit.com as one of the nation鈥檚 top 10 lawyer websites for 2017.

鈥淔or eight years, we have been finding the best examples of law-firm website design from numerous nominations. Our selection criteria include best practices for website design, basic search engine optimization, and website security,鈥� Lawyerist.com wrote in a Feb. 15 press release.

Evaluating the Mulligan Breit site, the organization wrote, 鈥淲e like the tasteful homepage videos on this site, which highlight the firm鈥檚 lawyers without being distracting.鈥�

What鈥檚 more, analytics set up by Colin show that the site is performing better than its cluttered predecessor. The 鈥渂ounce rate鈥濃�攖he percentage of visitors who click away after viewing only the home page鈥攈as decreased by 20 percent, and average session duration has risen 45 percent.

Overall hits are up as well, Colin says, but that鈥檚 an apples-to-oranges comparison because the new site has drastically reduced the number of 鈥渉its鈥� that come from netbots or people in foreign countries who are trying to lure site owners to 鈥渟cammy marketing groups.鈥�

Colin plans to pursue a career in web development, design and media.

鈥淚t gives you skills you can use directly to make a business, to make money in the real world with creative websites, graphic design, film, coding, robotics. What I love most about it is its interdisciplinary nature,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he cool thing is that I have also been able to use some of the analytical skills and economic thinking I鈥檝e learned in my economics course work to help in running my business.鈥�

Patrick, meanwhile, continues to practice and advocate for 鈥渢he least of these鈥� in American society.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 know if it was growing up Catholic and having parents that really encouraged public service, or seeing so many people who are disadvantaged, but I鈥檝e always felt like I owe something back,鈥� he says.

He and his wife Julia, an artist, are giving back to CU as well, working with the Office of Advancement to create an endowed scholarship fund.

鈥淭he university and campus have meant so much to me,鈥� Patrick says. 鈥淐reating the scholarship is another way to keep our family connected to CU.鈥�