Sherman & Howard litigation attorney Kellie Nelson Fetter was featured on an episode of “Latte with a Lawyer,” a podcast featuring attorneys and the ways they impact their profession.

Kellie is featured on Season 4, Episode 13 of the podcast. During her 37-minute conversation, she touched on the reasons she became a lawyer, the skills needed to be a good lawyer, and her work at Sherman & Howard, which she said ranges from oil and gas fracking operations miles beneath the earth’s surface to operations in space. She also discussed her role as chair of the firm’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Task Force.

Here is an excerpt of her conversation.

“Often, in my cases, there are good facts and bad facts and potential legal claims going both ways. If I’m in front of a jury, I like to be on the side with the best facts. If I’m in front of a judge, I like being on the side with the best law. Regardless, I like to be able to tell my clients’ stories and use the tools in the justice system to find the right outcome.”

“One of the reasons (sic) I love practicing law is it takes so many different parts of my brain and personality and so many different skills, and there is nowhere in my practice that condenses all of that … like a trial. The best way I connect with people is hearing their stories. It’s hard to judge people, so I get an opportunity to tell my clients’ stories, I get to be creative and demonstrative… (and) present this mountain of data to regular people so they can understand.  … I believe, for all the flaws in our system, when we get a group of people to look at the facts and the law, they usually find justice in the end. I hope that serves my client. But having access to that process helps us achieve better results.”

“I’m the chair of my firm’s diversity, equity, and inclusion initiative, and one of the things I’m passionate about there is that I don’t want only people who already have a family history of lawyers, who have had this path laid for them, to be successful in the law. There really is a place here for people of all different backgrounds and who have come up through different paths. My parents had no idea why I wanted to be a lawyer, and I had to figure out how to get here without that guidance. To the extent we can, I want to let more people know this is a path to be successful in.”

Listen to the entire conversation.