Caroleene Dobson has at all times believed within the energy of roots. Raised on her household’s fifth-generation cattle farm in Monroe County, she grew up in a small city the place neighbors seemed out for each other and laborious work was a lifestyle.
These early experiences instilled resilience, humility, and a way of accountability—values that will information her by way of each stage of her journey.
An English instructor at her rural highschool was one of many first to push her to dream past the acquainted. With that encouragement, Dobson utilized to Ivy League universities and was accepted to Harvard School, the place she studied Historical past and Literature.
At Harvard, she honed her potential to assume critically, write persuasively, and method challenges from a number of views. She went on to Baylor College Faculty of Legislation, the place she graduated magna cum laude and served as articles editor of the Baylor Legislation Evaluation.
For Dobson, these achievements had been by no means merely about private development; they had been about benefiting from the help and alternatives she had been given.
Coming dwelling to Alabama
After regulation faculty, Dobson practiced in Texas, the place she met and married her husband, Bobby.
But when she was anticipating their first youngster, the pull of Alabama grew to become unimaginable to disregard.
“There was nowhere else I’d relatively elevate my children than Alabama,” she has stated.
In 2019, the couple returned to Montgomery, the place they’re now elevating their two daughters, Philippa and Lydia.
Returning dwelling was not solely a private choice but additionally a deliberate option to put money into the place that formed her. For Dobson, Alabama represents each heritage and risk. She has spoken overtly in regards to the “mind drain” that always drives younger individuals away, taking their skills and ambitions elsewhere.
On the identical time, she sees extraordinary potential within the state’s pure sources, its individuals, and its traditions.
Her hope is to assist create extra alternatives for households in order that future generations can thrive in Alabama with out feeling they have to depart to succeed.
A profession of affect
Professionally, Dobson has established herself as a revered lawyer and shareholder at Maynard Nexsen.
Her observe focuses on pure sources, business finance, and actual property regulation—fields that demand each technical experience and a broad understanding of how enterprise, land, and group intersect.
She has guided shoppers by way of complicated conservation easements, negotiated multimillion-dollar actual property transactions, and earned recognition in “Greatest Attorneys: Ones to Watch in America” for her work in banking, finance, and actual property regulation.
When requested about her proudest accomplishments, Dobson pointed to the stability she’s discovered between her roots and her profession.
“I’m proud to be a product of rural Alabama and grateful to have a profession that enables me to lift my very own two youngsters inside an hour radius of the place I grew up. I’m grateful for Maynard’s teamwork tradition oriented on consumer service, and as a transactional lawyer specializing in business actual property, I’m motivated by the tangible nature of this space of the regulation,” she stated.
“Collaboration, civility and artistic problem-solving are values instilled in me rising up in an agrarian group, and those self same values are the hallmarks of being efficient in actual property regulation. Advocacy for my shoppers have to be balanced with constructive steps that transfer in the direction of a optimistic consequence for everybody concerned, and I’m happy with the shoppers I’ve helped develop and increase their companies, creating jobs and serving to Alabama’s economic system.”
Impressed by girls
Dobson is fast to acknowledge the ladies who formed her.
“I’ve been blessed with many great feminine function fashions all through my life, from my childhood educators to regulation agency colleagues to the large examples of feminine public servants we have now on this state,” she stated.
However the strongest affect was her mom, Lynne Hardee.
“My mother, along with serving to run our household farm alongside my father, operated her personal bodily remedy clinic in rural Wilcox County and was concerned in quite a few civic organizations—all the pieces from serving as state president for the Alabama Cattlewomen’s Affiliation to educating Sunday Faculty at Beatrice Baptist Church each week,” Dobson stated.
“She did all this with nearly no childcare and had homecooked meals on the desk each night in addition. Some of the pure nurturers I’ve ever recognized, she did all this with real pleasure and gratitude.”
That instance of service and dedication, Dobson defined, continues to information her.
“Whether or not she was serving to a homebound affected person of hers study to stroll once more or encouraging me and my sister with a tricky homework project, her true funding in a greater consequence for these she was aiding was contagious and served to inspire and encourage.”
“In each my authorized observe and as an aspiring public servant, I understand how necessary it’s to indicate that I care about a greater future for our state and the following era, and that sense of dedication drives me to show that in each interplay I’ve,” she added.
A mom’s perspective
Regardless of her skilled accomplishments, Dobson most frequently describes herself by way of household: a spouse and mom. She calls her daughters her “most valuable items,” and motherhood has solely deepened her sense of objective.
“My father has at all times stated, ‘You reside on your youngsters,’ and since changing into a mum or dad, I can not agree extra,” she shared.
“Bobby and I are so blessed with two wholesome daughters, and whether or not I’m serving to a brand new enterprise break floor in Alabama or operating to be our subsequent Secretary of State, I get up each morning desirous about how I can be certain that my women and all the kids on this state have a safer and extra affluent future.”
Her advocacy has additionally prolonged to points that have an effect on households throughout the state. She has spoken candidly in regards to the significance of in-vitro fertilization (IVF), calling it a “God-given know-how” that has introduced the miracle of life to pals and family members in Alabama.
For Dobson, it isn’t an summary coverage matter however a lived actuality – an instance of how trendy drugs can help essentially the most timeless human hope: beginning and constructing a household.
Her compassion has additionally been formed by loss. She has shared the story of her godbrother in Montgomery, who died of a fentanyl overdose.
The tragedy left an enduring mark, reminding her that dependancy is just not confined to sure communities or households – it’s a wrestle that reaches throughout traces of sophistication, geography, and circumstance. It’s also a problem that requires each dedication and empathy to deal with.
A imaginative and prescient of management
When requested about management, Dobson is modest.
“I don’t know that I’m a ‘nice chief,’ however I try day by day to steer within the methods God has meant me to,” she stated.
“To me, this implies exercising first, humility in data that every one items come from God; second, gratitude to God for these items; and third, confidence within the data that God has given every of us distinctive items and abilities to serve Him and our communities. Timothy Keller as soon as stated, ‘True gospel-humility means I cease connecting each expertise, each dialog, with myself. I cease desirous about myself altogether.’ Nowadays of selfishness and excessive individualism fostered by social media, we must always all take into consideration ourselves much less, hearken to our neighbors extra, and above all, search ways in which we are able to fulfill God’s objective for every of us.”
For Dobson, Alabama offers fertile floor for that imaginative and prescient of management.
“We’re blessed in Alabama to by and huge share the identical values—religion, household, laborious work and humility—and wishes—a greater future for the following era. By specializing in these targets and fewer on ourselves, there isn’t any finish to what we are able to accomplish with God’s steerage.”
A Girl of Impression
Dobson’s affect is felt throughout a number of spheres: as a lawyer serving to companies and landowners navigate complicated challenges, as a public servant working to guard Alabama’s pure sources, and as a group chief advocating for households and alternative.
What unites all of those efforts is her perception that Alabama’s finest days are nonetheless forward.
She speaks with equal conviction about conserving pure sources, strengthening households, and creating alternatives for younger individuals.
Every of those priorities is linked, and collectively they type her imaginative and prescient for a stronger Alabama – one the place rural and concrete communities thrive, the place households have the help they want, and the place the state’s heritage turns into a basis for future progress relatively than a relic of the previous.
Grounded in her rural roots, guided by religion and household, and pushed by a dedication to offer again, Caroleene Dobson has change into a pacesetter whose affect extends far past her personal achievements.
For her, success is just not measured by accolades or titles however by the alternatives she helps create for others. That perspective, and the regular instance of her life, are what make her a real Girl of Impression.
