Welcome, Kate Dodoo!

McAfee & Taft is pleased to welcome Kate Dodoo, a trial and appellate lawyer with more than 15 years’ experience serving the public at the federal, state and municipal levels, to McAfee & Taft’s top-ranked Labor & Employment and Litigation & Appellate Groups.

Her diverse career experience includes serving as a municipal attorney in Oklahoma, as an appellate attorney for the Oklahoma Supreme Court, and as assistant chief counsel in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Office of the Principal Legal Advisor in San Antonio, Texas.
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Transcript

Michael Lauderdale: We’re so excited for Kate to return to the state. Any time we can get an attorney to return to their roots here in Oklahoma, it’s great for not only the firm, but for the city, for the state. Kate is an incredible resource. She brings an invaluable amount of experience from her time at the Oklahoma Supreme Court. She was an appellate attorney for Justice Colbert for many years. That type of skillset is unique and difficult to find. Also, her immigration experience is critical to the law firm being able to expand that area of practice. She gained an incredible amount of experience in the administrative process. Real-world, hands-on work dealing with all sorts of issues, working through that process. Those are skills that most lawyers don’t have and they’ll never have, and Kate’s bringing that back to us, and we’re super excited about that.

Mary Quinn Cooper: We have clients regularly call us and need consultation on immigration matters. But we also are so excited to have Kate work on appellate issues, for which she is uniquely qualified, given her background as Chief Justice Colbert’s law clerk. And we also think she’ll be involved in litigation. And when she was in San Antonio, she was in the courtroom every day. So we can’t wait to get her involved in lots of different things.

Kate Dodoo: I’ve been in public service for about 15 years, the last two of which I’ve been serving as an assistant chief counsel with the Office of Principal Legal Advisor in an immigration practice. And so, immigration law has been something that’s always been interesting to me. And I was excited to know that they were open to bringing back an immigration practice more focused towards business immigration, employment immigration. I used to work at the Supreme Court under the first African-American Supreme Court justice, Tom Colbert, and I served there for 12 years. And so, I feel like I have a niche for the appellate area, as well. And so, I was excited to know that McAfee was willing to allow me to branch out and practice in various areas. And so, to me, it was a no-brainer. Aside from the fact that McAfee is one of the most reputable firms in our region, and it gives me the opportunity.

Mary Quinn Cooper: So rarely do you get an opportunity to hire someone like Kate Dodoo. She has 16 years of experience. She’s been a clerk for the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. She has a varied background with transactional matters and litigation. She’s really a one-in-a-million find, and we’re just thrilled that she wanted to move back to Oklahoma city and came to McAfee & Taft.