Gordon Paul Gallagher
How Judge Gallagher decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
On a trademark/contract dispute, the plain language of the parties' written contract controls and ends the inquiry; he will not read in limitations the parties did not write, and resolves the motion on contract interpretation without reaching the trademark elements.
“Colorado courts have made clear that 'courts may not rewrite clear and unambiguous contract provisions.' ... Contracts should be enforced as they are made.”
Procedural preferences
Will consider a contract attached to a 12(b)(6) motion without converting to summary judgment when it is referenced in and central to the complaint and its authenticity is undisputed; and once all federal claims are dismissed, follows the Tenth Circuit's default of declining supplemental jurisdiction over remaining state claims.
“when all the 'federal claims have been dismissed, the court may, and usually should, decline to exercise jurisdiction over any remaining state claims.'”
Motion outcomes
Counted from classified signed orders only. Percentages are shown only where the sample is large enough to be meaningful; smaller samples are reported as raw counts.
| Motions to dismiss N = 1 |
Granted: 1 | counts only |
A "1 of 1" is one ruling, not a tendency. Treat small samples as illustrative, not predictive.
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“Accordingly, it is ORDERED that Motion to Dismiss Defendant the Three Federal Claims (D. 23) is GRANTED. It is FURTHER ORDERED that the Clerk of the Court shall close this case.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Small, non-representative sample. Most of his enumerated 2026 district docket is still pending (no termination date), so a duration distribution is not yet computable. Flagged for deepening once more district-era cases terminate.