Hi, I’m Dave Albrechta.
In 2023 I faced a hard truth. Who I was being as a litigating plaintiff’s employment lawyer did not align with my core values and beliefs as a dad and partner. Seeing this led me to make the difficult decision to stop litigating, re-program my brain, and build a new practice that was aligned with who I truly am.
Now I am offering support to other lawyers experiencing similar shifts.
My Approach
I’m a professionally-trained coach through the Academy for Coaching Excellence (ACE), accredited training program of the International Coach Federation (ICF).
I use an ontological coaching model, which combines powerful principles from ancient wisdom teachings with the latest in neuroscience, and integrates it all into an elegant framework that is as pragmatic as it is transformational.
In our work together, I use this model to help you move through what feels stuck — so you can make clear, deliberate decisions and take steady action in alignment with what matters most to you.
I offer consistent, thoughtful support, creating space for you to move beyond the places where you’ve felt stuck before. Whatever you’re navigating, I will meet you there and stay engaged in the process with you.
As your coach I will advocate for your vision, goals and dreams within your own life to support you in turning your vision into reality.
My Story
I was born and raised in Northwest Ohio. I grew up in the cornfields of middle America. My dad was a lawyer. My grandfather was a judge in our small hometown. I always knew I wanted to be a lawyer.
In 2006, I met my wife, Eleni, while we were both interning on a political campaign in Denver, Colorado. I graduated from the College of Wooster with a B.A. in Philosophy in 2008. Eleni and I got married in 2009 and spent several years working in politics. In 2011, we moved back to Ohio to attend the evening program at the University of Toledo College of Law.
After graduating and passing the bar exam in 2015, we moved to Durango, Colorado, and opened our own law firm in our dream mountain town. Over the next nine years, we built a successful and thriving practice. In my first nine years as a conventional attorney, I assisted clients in general civil litigation, employment law, and business planning and consulting. I represented hundreds of individuals in private negotiations and before multiple courts and agencies — including winning a case in the Colorado Supreme Court that redefined the law around accrued vacation time.
During my years as a conventional plaintiff’s lawyer, I began to notice a pattern. Because our traditional adversarial system focuses primarily on monetary compensation, clients often left the process feeling that they had not truly received justice — that the underlying wrongs remained raw and unresolved.
In 2023, influenced by a number of factors — being a parent, COVID, and broader unrest at home and abroad — I began exploring other ways of being a lawyer. I wanted to bring more kindness, collaboration, and cooperation into the practice of law. I crafted a blueprint for helping clients heal from the traumas they had experienced, rather than fighting for years over financial compensation alone.
That search led Eleni and me to the integrative law movement. In 2024, we renamed our firm Aspen Grove Integrative Law. During this transition, I hired a coach, Kim Wright, to help me bring my vision into reality. Until then, I harbored a fair amount of skepticism about “life coaches.” After working with one, I experienced firsthand the value of thoughtful, structured coaching.
Since 2023, I have completed three mediation trainings and the ACE Coach Training Program. Today, I blend those skills to help clients engage with the legal system in ways that align with their values — and to support lawyers navigating transitions similar to my own.
Outside of work, I am passionate about international travel, extended wilderness backpacking trips, fly fishing small high-country streams, traveling North America in our 1997 VW Eurovan and spending time with my wife and our two sons.