Chapman, Valdez, & Lansing

Focus and practice areas

The firm describes itself as a group of trial and commercial lawyers based in Casper, Wyoming. Its listed work runs along two broad tracks. One is personal injury and criminal defense. The other is business, estate, and family matters.

On the injury side, the site names auto accidents, truck accidents, wrongful death, and products liability. On the defense side, it names criminal defense and DUI/DWI cases. The same navigation lists probate and estate planning, family law, commercial transactions, employment law, civil rights and discrimination, litigation and appeals, and guardianship and conservatorship.

A general practice, not a single niche

That is a wide menu for a firm of five listed lawyers. In my opinion, the spread points to a general practice that handles both plaintiff and business matters. It suggests a firm a local client might return to for more than one kind of problem over the years.

The firm also states that it represents clients at every level of the Wyoming state and federal court system. That is a claim about where it appears, not about how often it prevails. Read plainly, it positions the firm as a courtroom practice as much as an advisory one.

Where the firm works

Two offices anchor the practice. One sits in Casper, in Natrona County. The other is in Sheridan, further north. The site lists both under the same phone line.

The firm's reach extends past those two bases. Its footer points to service pages for Gillette, Douglas, and Rock Springs, and it names a truck accident service area for Rock Springs. Wyoming is a large and thinly settled state, so a client can sit hours from the nearest courthouse. A practice with two offices and several named service towns is trying to close that distance.

One detail stands out. Both offices are listed as open every day, around the clock. For most law firms that reads less as a literal front-desk schedule and more as a signal that intake, especially after a crash or an arrest, is meant to be reachable at odd hours. I read it that way here.

How the team is built

The site lists five lawyers under its "Our Lawyers" heading: Thomas Valdez, Michael J Lansing, Patrick J Lewallen, Mikole Bede Soto, and Trevor Schenk. The firm's name carries the Valdez and Lansing surnames along with Chapman, a name that no longer appears on the current roster.

The firm does not publish a founding year. It does tie the Chapman name to a public defender appointment dating to 1978, which speaks to long individual service rather than a firm start date. The stated history and the current roster are two separate things, and the site keeps them that way.

Named credentials

Thomas Valdez is described as a general practice attorney. His profile records a Bachelor of Science from the University of Wyoming in 1991 and a Juris Doctor from the University of Kansas School of Law in 1995. Those are the only school details the site publishes for any lawyer, and they place his training in the region and the Midwest.

Michael J Lansing's page notes that he represents many of the large corporations located in Natrona County. That one line signals the firm keeps a foot in the business world, not only in injury and criminal cases. The site gives no titles or bios for Lewallen, Soto, or Schenk. As a reviewer, I would want fuller profiles here, since named credentials are the sort of evidence this directory weighs most.

Fees and what the record states

By its own account, the firm has represented injured individuals, criminal defendants, and civil plaintiffs for more than twenty-five years. The site frames that as a length of service, not a founding date. It does not publish verdicts, settlement figures, or rankings, so there is little hard outcome data to test.

What the firm does state about cost is plain. Most personal injury cases are handled on a contingency fee basis, which means the fee comes from any recovery rather than up front. The firm also offers free case evaluations for personal injury and professional malpractice matters. For a prospective injury client, those two points set clear expectations for a first meeting and for how a lawyer gets paid.

How to read this listing

For a directory built on evidence over advertising, this listing lands in the middle. The firm publishes its practice areas, its two offices, its lawyers, and a clear statement of its fee approach. It stops short of the awards, case numbers, and full bios that would let a reader verify more.

In my opinion, the firmest signals here are the breadth of practice and the stated quarter century of trial and civil work. A client with a Wyoming injury, criminal, family, or estate matter can see at a glance whether their issue fits the list.

What a prospective client should ask

The gaps are worth naming, because they point to good questions. Three of the five lawyers have no published bio, so a caller might ask who would actually handle the file and what that lawyer has done before. The site gives no results, so asking about experience with a matter like yours is fair. None of this counts against the firm. It is simply where the public record ends and a phone call begins.