Williams, Porter, Day, and Neville isn’t just a law firm. They don’t just provide the best service, at a reasonable price, to a wide-variety of clients across Wyoming. They’re also a firm that is very involved in their community. Many WPDN attorneys serve on boards of various organizations. They know how important it is to give back to the community, offering not just financial support, but their time as well.
Keith Dodson is one of those attorneys.
Dodson began working for WPDN in September of 2009, but he knew that he wanted to be an attorney far before that. And the reason he wanted to be an attorney was because, in the simplest terms, he just wanted to help people.
“I guess it was one of those things that I always just kind of thought about doing,” Dodson stated. “In high school, I was part of the speech and debate team. I did mock trial competitions in high school and being a lawyer was just always in the back of my mind.”
Dodson chose his path and he followed it, completing college and getting his Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology & Criminal Justice, before earning his JD in 2007 from the University of Wyoming College of Law. After graduating law school and passing the bar exam, Dodson began working as a court clerk for the First Judicial District Court in Cheyenne. For two years, he worked for three different district court judges.
“It was awesome,” Dodson said. “Usually, each judge has one law clerk per judge, but I covered all three judges. So I got to see the ins and outs of the decision-making judicial process from the perspective of three different judges.”
Dodson said that, while he worked there, one of the most important things he realized about his profession was just how much it encompassed.
“My biggest observation while I worked there was the breadth of the impact that the legal field has,” he said. “I was covering cases from juvenile cases to criminal and civil cases, and I realized just how much impact we have on society.”
Williams, Porter, Day, and Neville, exists to impact society in positive ways, offering good work for fair prices, so it should come as no surprise that Dodson began working for WPDN soon after he left Cheyenne.
“I grew up in Casper, graduated from high school here,” Dodson said. “And my wife and I were looking to go somewhere where we could be closer to family. I knew about Williams Porter because I knew Pat Murphy. Additionally, his dad was a Casper accountant who knew WPDN well. That connection eventually led Dodson to walking through the doors of WPDN in 2009.
“After talking with my dad, I applied with them and was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to come work for WPDN, and I’ve been here ever since.”
Dodson said that the interview process was more than just ‘So tell me about your strengths and weaknesses.’
“The interview process that is typical of this firm is that they tell you to show up and any attorney that’s here will come in and sit down with you,” he said. “So I think I had basically every attorney in the office come in and sit with me and ask questions of me and I had the opportunity to ask them questions as well.”
Dodson is not a prideful man. His humility, in fact, is one of the nicest things about him. But sometimes, we’re our own sharpest critics and, oftentimes, we’re the last to realize our own worth – to a company, to a partner, to the world at large.
“I don’t know what they saw in me and why they were willing to provide me that opportunity,” Dodson remarked. “Especially at the time, they had already hired another associate and were looking at another one as well. So I didn’t have much of an expectation that I would be getting an offer, but they chose to extend one to me, nonetheless.”
Dodson may not have realized what WPDN saw in him, but the other attorneys did. What they saw was an eager, hungry and, most importantly, kind young man that would be a welcome addition to their offices. So they made him the offer and they opened their arms and said “You are with us, now. You’re one of us.”
“I was excited,” Dodson continued. “It gave me and my wife the opportunity to come back to Casper, which is a great community to be a part of and a great community in which to raise your family. It allowed us to be close to our family, and to begin our own family as well.”
Dodson started working for WPDN in 2009. He has been an attorney for the firm for 12 years, and in those 12 years, he has helped a lot of clients. Dodson has an extensive civil litigation practice and frequently represents clients in various industries. He also works with transportation, construction, and retail injuries. Additionally, he advises and represents companies regarding employment issues, as well as issues stemming from transactions, litigation, premises liability, and work-related injuries.
Dodson has done a lot for Williams, Porter, Day, and Neville and he has learned a lot from Williams, Porter, Day, and Neville.
“I’ve had the good fortune to be able to work with Scott Ortiz and Stuart Day and Pat Murphy a lot during my 12 years here,” he said. “I’ve been able to see how they practice and I’ve seen the scope of their practice and I’ve followed my path to not completely overlap them, but to emulate them as best I can.”
And that’s kind of the great thing about WPDN – everybody wants to help the other succeed in order to, ultimately, make sure their clients are satisfied. They work like a team, like a family. And there is always room to grow, to learn, and to become even better lawyers for the community of which they serve.
“One of the greatest things about working here is being able to have the wealth of knowledge that we have,” Dodson beamed. “You look at other, smaller firms and while they may have good attorneys, they don’t have the wealth of knowledge or the ability to gather that information so quickly. For me, I can literally walk out my door and the office next door is Scott Klosterman, who is one of the smartest attorney’s I’ve ever been around. The office on the other side of me is Scott Ortiz. And they’re more than willing to bounce off ideas and offer their experiences. So it has helped me to be able to work through issues for clients quicker and better because we have that ability to meet and talk with each other about those issues, instead of just facing them alone.”
At Williams, Porter, Day, and Neville, no attorney works alone. Similarly, their attorneys work to ensure that the clients know that no matter the situation, no matter how scary or overwhelming or impossible their case seems, they are not alone either. That commitment to clients is what has kept Dodson around for 12 years, and it’s what will probably keep him around for many more.
“I’ve stayed at WPDN because of the attorneys that I work for and with, and for the clients that I get to represent,” he said. “The reputation that we have, providing that great service to clients, is why I stuck around. It’s provided opportunities to not only be a part of the legal community in Casper and in the entire region, but we’re also a part of organizations that allow us to have that national reach as well. We get to represent clients locally, regionally, and nationally.”
But for Dodson, local is the priority. In addition to his work as an attorney, Dodson is also heavily involved in the community. He’s on the Board of Directors for both the Wyoming Symphony Orchestra and the Montessori School of Casper.
“I just enjoy helping people,” he shrugged. “Being in the legal field has helped me get more involved in the community. I’ve had the opportunity to be on several boards throughout my career so far and it’s really allowed me to get more involved and give back to the community.”
Community is important to Dodson. It’s also important to WPDN. That is an ideal that was held by the original founders of the firm, and it is one of the most important ideals still held today.
“I think a lot of the groundwork comes from the fact that the original partners, and then the partners that they have taken in over time, have spent so much time not just concentrating on their own practices, but giving back to Casper, as well,” Dodson said. “We’re not a business that just sits here and does business and earns money. We’re fully integrated into the community and we’re a part of it. And that all comes back to the foundation that was laid by the original partners here.”
The foundation that was laid by the original partners of WPDN has grown into a cornucopia of talent, of knowledge and, most importantly, of client-care. It is full of attorneys striving to provide excellent service at a fair price. Keith Dodson is one of those attorneys and, whether he realizes it or not, WPDN saw something in him when he first walked through their doors, and they see something in him, still. What they see is an attorney with a good heart, vast knowledge, and incredible skill. What they see is an attorney willing to go above-and-beyond for his clients. What they see, more than anything, is simply a good man.