Vol. 28, No. 2 #7 (April 2005). Wyoming Welcomes Roberts as Newest Circuit Court Judge.

• Author: By Mary Angell

Wyoming Bar Journal

2005.

Vol. 28, No. 2 #7 (April 2005).

Wyoming Welcomes Roberts as Newest Circuit Court Judge

WYOMING LAWYERApril 2005/Vol. XXVIII, No. 2Wyoming Welcomes Roberts as Newest Circuit Court JudgeBy Mary Angell

If it weren't for his friends' and family's confidence in him, Wyoming's new Ninth Judicial District Circuit Court judge might be wielding a hammer today instead of a gavel. As a young man, Wesley Roberts wanted to be a carpenter. He never imagined himself as a judge.

"My whole career, people have seen my potential and seen the possibilities before I did," he told the Wyoming Lawyer recently. "I did great academically in high school, but growing up in a blue collar family, I didn't see myself having a white collar profession."

He recalls wanting to drop chemistry class in high school. He just wanted to be a carpenter, he told the teacher, who refused to let him drop the class and advised him to consider all his possibilities.

"I stayed in chemistry class and graduated from high school," Roberts said. "I had no plans to go to college, so I hadn't pursued a scholarship. I was going to go to work and build houses."

Then his mother suggested he look into a scholarship she had discovered.

So Roberts ended up going to the University of Wyoming and graduating with honors in 1981 with a degree in marketing. Even as a college graduate, he stayed true to his roots and, like his father, went into the oil and gas industry. He worked for three years in oil field sales and marketing.

"I was a regional sales manager for a company that made a rubber product used in the oil fields," he said. "Then I was offered a transfer to either Houston or Oklahoma City. I'd had a chance to do a lot of traveling in my work, and I knew I wanted to stay in Wyoming."

"The oil fields were really going bust at the time; the rig count was going down steadily. The transfer was offered because they were going to shut down in Wyoming. It was a good time to get out," Roberts said. "I wanted something a little more recession-proof, so I decided to go to law school. It ended up being a great choice. I hadn't really thought that much about going to law school, but I knew that my grades were such that I could do it."

He graduated from the University of Wyoming College of Law in 1987.

"I went into law school thinking I would come out and still be in the oil...