Vol. 31, No. 3, #1. A New Fish in Judicial Waters.

• Author: Author: Mary Angell

Wyoming Bar Journal

2008.

Vol. 31, No. 3, #1.

A New Fish in Judicial Waters

Wyoming Bar Journal Issue: June, 2008 Author: Mary Angell A New Fish in Judicial Waters

Wyoming lawyers would benefit from trying more cases. So says Michael K. Davis, an experienced trial lawyer and the new District Judge in the First Judicial District in Laramie County. Not that he wants an overloaded docket, of course.

"It would not be good for the system if every case were tried," he told the Wyoming Lawyer. "Mitigation saves time and money. I just hope lawyers are not afraid to get on a trial case. It's healthy to have more trials."

Davis was recently appointed to replace Judge Nicholas Kalokathis, who retired earlier this year.

"I think he'll be a great judge," said Tom Toner, partner of the Sheridan firm Yonkee and Toner, LLP, said of Davis. "He's been an outstanding trial lawyer for years and years. We hate to lose him from our firm, but he'll be a great asset to the First Judicial District."

Davis has not always aspired to be a judge.

"It was not something I was chomping at the bit to do when I got my law degree," he said. "But I figured I had gathered a lot of experience and I felt I would be useful as a judge. I felt I could do all of it."

"On the one side, I've always felt it's a good thing for a person to do some public service," he continued. "On the other, it's a good growth thing for me to broaden back out from the specialized things I did as a lawyer to being a generalist."

Davis' first jobs out of high school did not point to a legal career. He worked setting up big machinery at a refinery, helped his father work on compression engines and operated a press for a carpet company. The press stamped out squares of carpet, and his job was to hit the button to stop it when it ran out of carpet.

"I was doing this all day long," he said, making a button-pushing motion.

Before going to law school, Davis also served three years with the U.S. Army stationed in Italy, where he learned to speak Italian fluidly enough to pass a linguist exam.

As a U.W. law student, he worked as a paralegal for U.S. Attorney Charles E. Graves.

"I was doing briefings and jury instructions," Davis said. "I got to spend quite a bit of time in court watching lawyers work. It was a great experience."

Davis graduated with honors from the University of Wyoming College of Law...