Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Stephen Doerr and Randy Knudson have been practicing law together nearly 30 years.
Doerr grew up in Clovis and Knudson in Portales. Doerr and Knudson played sports against each other, but didn’t strike up a friendship until law school.
They met through a Phi Delta Beta fraternity brother at the University of New Mexico.
Knudson said Doerr was the one who talked him into returning to eastern New Mexico.
“We’ve been really involved in the state bar activity,” Knudson said. “We’re small-town practitioners. We do a lot of governmental work. We do governmental work for as far away as Luna County.”
Doerr and Knudson represent Portales, Tucumcari and smaller communities in Curry, Roosevelt, Quay and other counties.
“I represent several of the local banks,” Knudson said. “We are both members of the New Mexico trial lawyers, so we do a lot of plaintiff litigation, which is injury related matters. We don’t do any domestic relations work anymore.”
The law firm provides legal review and advice to communities applying for grants.
Knudson said he got hooked on wanting to be a lawyer after his civics teacher at Portales Junior High took the class to the courthouse.
“I saw the lawyer, and I said, ‘Man that’s what I want to do,’ ” Knudson said.
Knudson said anyone wanting to become a lawyer needs to realize attorneys are frequently part of an adversarial relationship.
“We usually have to take a side, so we’re making people mad at us during that process,” Knudson said. “It is an adversarial matter when it is in a courtroom.”
Knudson said it is a good choice as a profession for anyone who wants to be a problem solver.