Friends of the Bar, 0421 WYBJ, Vol. 44 No. 2. 58
| Position | Vol. 44 2 Pg. 58 |
Brad McKim
Bar Number: 5-2452
Law School: University of Wyoming College of Law
Basic Bio: Brad is a 1986 graduate of the University of Wyoming College of Law. Prior to attending UW Law, he attended the University of Colorado where he graduated with a degree in Business. After law school, Brad worked in private practice in Denver as a commercial litigator. He then moved in-house with Amoco Oil, which later merged with BP. Brad has worked in several states—including Wyoming, Texas, and Alaska—as well as internationally in London where he was chief counsel for BP’s worldwide production operations. He retired in 2015. Since retiring he has worked as an arbitrator and serves on several non-profit boards, including the UW College of Law Advisory Panel.
I chose the UW College of Law because I wanted to attend a law school that was close to friends in Colorado (but not too close), just in case I needed to get away for a bit. I was also attracted to the smaller class sizes at UW. It turned out to be a great decision. I made life-long friends there, and I was able to use my UW education to build an exciting career.
The best advice I ever received as a law student was when I asked Dean Maxfield—the current Dean at the time—“What happens when I graduate and have to compete against lawyers from Harvard, Yale, and Stanford?” The sincerity of his response has stuck with me over the years. He said, “Our brightest and most motivated law students can compete with the brightest and most motivated students from any other law school.”
What do you think of that advice today?
I have found it to be true everywhere I have been, from Houston to London. The law school has a great faculty and an unusually collegial environment. There is nothing about the school that will hold a lawyer back. Only the individual lawyer can do that.
Having practiced in many places, how does Wyoming compare? Practicing in Wyoming grounded me. Because the Bar is small, there is a real sense of being part of a legal community. And in a state with only about a half million people, it’s hard to hide bad behavior, so the lawyers tend to treat each other with respect and they don’t take themselves too seriously. Those are gifts we...
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