BrothertonLaw.com

William J. Brotherton has accomplished many things in addition to building a successful law firm. One such accomplishment is his railroad background, where he dealt with adversity and sub zero temperatures as a brakeman, conductor and trainmaster. Hired on the Burlington Northern Railroad in 1979 as a brakeman, he worked out of Grand Forks and Minot, North Dakota, Staples and Dilworth, Minnesota, and Alliance, Nebraska. He worked freight trains throughout North Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, Wyoming and South Dakota. In 1981, he was promoted to trainmaster with the Colorado & Southern Railroad, a Burlington Northern subsidiary, and transferred to Denver. As a trainmaster, he dealt with labor strikes, merger issues and employee discipline. He left the railroad in 1982, and ultimately obtained his law degree, in part because his experiences in conducting "investigations", railroad quasi-judicial proceedings, got him interested in pursuing a legal career. Today, he is the principal attorney of the Brotherton Law Firm, a business, insurance, transportation, real estate and litigation firm in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. William is consistently voted the "Best Attorney" or one of the best attorneys in Denton County by the readers of the Lewisville Leader and Flower Mound Leader. The Firm's offices are near the main line of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, and his old brakeman's lantern sits at a place of honor near his desk.
		William Brotherton on the Set of "Heaven's Fall" (scroll over for close up shot)
		William Brotherton recently played a disgruntled railroad worker in the movie "Heaven's Fall" (Strata Productions), set in 1933 Alabama. Directed by Terry Green, the movie features Timothy Hutton, David Strathairn, LeeLee Sobieski, Azura Skye, James Tolkan, Bill Sage, Lew Temple and Bill Smitrovich. The Movie was released in November, 2007.
William is a frequent speaker on a variety of legal issues and topics, and has taught environmental law at Texas Christian University since 1993. He has also taught at Texas Wesleyan University School of Law and the Center for Environmental Research and Training at the University of Texas at Dallas. He also speaks to groups across the country on a theme of “Don’t Listen to the Naysayers: Live Your Dreams!” He, his wife Deborah, and their border collies live in Argyle, Texas. Their oldest daughter Shawn works at the firm, and daughter Rebecca is a snowboarding instructor in Vail, Colorado.		The movie is about a group of young black men, known as the Scottsboro Boys, who meet two white prostitutes (Sobieski and Skye) while hopping freight trains during the Great Depression. They are accused of rape when the train is stopped in Alabama, quickly convicted and then sentenced to death. Samuel Leibowitz, a renowned New York trial attorney (played by Timothy Hutton), comes to Alabama to retry the case after the Supreme Court throws out the conviction. Ultimately, one of the prostitutes recants her earlier testimony and William’s character expresses his dissatisfaction with her in a surprising manner. The picture above is director Terry Green coaching William for the main scene. . Click here for more pictures of William on the set.
Articles about William J. Brotherton Success Story: William Brotherton: Mixing Law, Railroading, Acting, and More, -- JD Bliss (Balancing Life and the Law) read more DCBA Member Has Multi-faceted Career – Denton Lawyer read more Profile of William J. Brotherton – Texas Bar Journal read more William J. Brotherton, Attorney and Actor -- David Strathairn Online read more He’s Been Working On The Railroad – Lewisville Leaderread more		William and Timothy Hutton on The Set