Would becoming only the third Revisor of Statutes in the history of the Office of Legislative Legal Services be better than, for instance, spotting the “striking and unmistakable” Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and hearing its Morse-code-like drumming? You’d have to ask Yelana Love, who, on October 14, 2024, succeeded Jennifer Gilroy in the position.

In her decade as an attorney with the office, Yelana has developed extensive expertise in areas of the law that include labor and employment, health care, professions and occupations, and alcohol beverage regulation. As members of the General Assembly and her coworkers will tell you, she is known for her competence, grace, confidence, and kindness. Very little ruffles her: she is detail-oriented, methodical, and organized—traits that have served her well as she’s watched for White-tailed Ptarmigans and will continue to serve her well as the Revisor of Statutes.

As an ambassador of the office, Yelana has also served on the Colorado Commission on Uniform State Laws, and she is currently a member of the Uniform Law Commission’s Drafting Committee on Occupational Licenses of Servicemembers and Military Spouses.

Beyond her important drafting work, Yelana has helped members, leadership staff, and office attorneys navigate the sunset process and has worked with members and their aides to respond to Colorado Open Records Act requests. She always has her binoculars on and her “Field Guide to Legislative Drafting Offices of North America” open as she plans for the office’s future, contributes to the professional development programming that benefits attorneys and other staff, and listens to and supports her coworkers.

Whether she’s working with leadership on the floor of the Senate, scoping orchestras of Avocets or exaltations of Larks on her travels, or offering to help a coworker recodify an article of the Colorado Revised Statutes, Yelana’s dedication and intelligence sing (whether like a Hermit Thrush or Winter Wren, she would know best).

The work of the Revisor of Statutes greatly aids the office’s prime directive: to serve the General Assembly and the citizens of this state and to forward the cause of effective self-government. And the feather in the Revisor’s cap is the Colorado Revised Statutes. Under the guidance of the Committee on Legal Services and with the help of the office’s capable staff, the Revisor prepares for publication:

• The Colorado Revised Statutes and the history of those laws so that the public can understand how they’ve been changed;
• Annotations, or helpful explanations, of state and federal court decisions relating to the law;
• The rules of civil and criminal procedure; and
• Many more important documents, as outlined in article 5 of title 2 of the Colorado Revised Statutes.

Life is a balance of holding on to the branch and letting it go. As Yelana Love does both this fall, please join us in congratulating her on her appointment as Revisor of Statutes. We have no doubt she will take to the role like a Northern Shoveler does to water.