B. Lawrence Theis has been elected chairman of the executive committee at Denver law firm Holme Roberts & Owen LLP, succeeding Robert Bach.

Theis is a partner with HRO's litigation practice group. He founded the litigation firm of Musgrave & Theis, which merged with HRO in 2006. He is a former state antitrust prosecutor.

Bach had been the firm's executive committee chairman for eight years, HRO (hro.com) said in a statement Tuesday. Bach will return to full-time law practice.

Theis had been HRO's general counsel. Mashenka Lundberg will assume that post.

HRO, founded in 1898, is Denver's second-largest locally based law firm, according to the Denver Business Journal's Book of Lists. The firm says it has more than 260 attorneys in three Colorado officers as well as in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, London and Munich.