Deputy Attorney General 

David DeWald

David is the Deputy of the Water and Natural Resources Division of the Wyoming Attorney General's Office, which protects and defends the State's environmental quality, water, and natural resources. He supervises litigation brought at the direction of the Governor on an array of natural resource, energy, and environmental issues related to federal land, water, air, mineral, and other policies affecting the state’s sovereign interests. He also supervises the attorneys that represent various state agencies with water and natural resource nexuses, such as the State Engineer's Office, the Department of Environmental Quality, the Department of Agriculture, the Game and Fish Department, and various professional licensing boards, among others.

David’s litigation experience includes matters brought under the APA, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, FLPMA, NEPA, CERCLA, RCRA, the National Forest Management Act, the Environmental Quality Act, and federal treaties. His experience includes appearances before every level of state and federal court, including merits experience before the Supreme Court of the United States in Herrera v. Wyoming.

David received his Juris Doctor with High Distinction, Order of Coif, from the Nebraska College of Law, where he served as Articles Editor for the Nebraska Law Review. He began his career as a law clerk for the Honorable John M. Gerrard. He has practiced both in the public interest and in private practice, handling environmental matters of all types.

Supervising Attorney General 

Christopher Brown

Chris is a Senior Assistant Attorney General within the Water and Natural Resources Division. Chris is a Wyoming native from Cody and a United States Navy veteran. He received his J.D. with honor from the University of Wyoming College of Law in 2002, and is a member of the Order of the Coif. Before joining the Wyoming Attorney General’s Office in 2011, Chris was a partner in a private law firm in Powell, Wyoming, where he gained a broad range of legal experience including tort litigation, real estate and business transactions, employment law, administrative law, and water law.

Chris supervises the Water Section of the Water and Natural Resources Division, whose attorneys represent the Wyoming State Engineer’s Office, the Wyoming Department of Agriculture, the Wyoming Livestock Board, and several divisions of the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality including the Land Quality, Industrial Siting, and Solid and Hazardous Waste Divisions. They also represent professional licensing boards including the Board of Professional Engineers and Professional Land Surveyors. Chris’s primary representation responsibilities are to the State Engineer’s Office. He provides day-to-day advice and representation to that Office on all water related issues arising throughout the state, and national water issues affecting Wyoming. He is also the primary attorney providing legal representation to the state on all interstate river compacts and decrees such as those associated with the Colorado River. Chris is a member of the Western States Water Council, the Upper Colorado River Commission legal committee, and a 2017 recipient of the Bureau of Reclamation’s John W. Keys, III Award related to his work on the Colorado River. He was also part of the litigation team defending the United States Supreme Court original action, Montana v. Wyoming.

Senior Assistant Attorneys General 

Abigail Boudewyns

Abigail is a Senior Assistant Attorney General within the Water and Natural Resources Division where she represents the Wyoming State Engineer’s Office and Board of Control. Previous experience with the Attorney General’s Office includes advising the Wyoming Water Development Office and Commission, the Department of Agriculture, the Livestock Board, and a variety of other State boards and commissions. Prior to returning to the Attorney General’s Office in 2022, Abigail was the Research and Evaluation Administrator for the Wyoming Legislative Service Office where she managed a team of research analysts and served as the lead staff attorney for the Select Water Committee and Management Audit Committee. In addition to working for the Wyoming Legislature, Abigail spent two years following law school with the Kansas Legislative Research Department working on agriculture, water, and natural resources issues.

Born and raised in the Kansas City area (Kansas side), Abigail received a B.A. in French and Geography, with distinction, from the University of Kansas and her J.D., with honors, from Washburn University School of Law. She is admitted to practice law in Kansas, Colorado, and Wyoming.

J.D. Sater

J.D. is a Senior Assistant Attorney General in the Water and Natural Resources Division of the Wyoming Attorney General’s Office. A native of Boise, Idaho, J.D. earned his Bachelor of Arts in political science from Thomas Edison State University. While attending Liberty University School of Law, J.D. was a research assistant for Prof. Joel Hesch and an editorial board member of the Liberty University Law Review. He also participated in his law school’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance clinic, estate planning clinic, and the Business Transactions Legal Society. In 2013, J.D. graduated summa cum laude. Eager to move back to the West, J.D. had the privilege of clerking first for the Hon. Keith G. Kautz of the Eighth Judicial District Court of Wyoming and later for the Hon. Daniel T. Eismann of the Idaho Supreme Court. 

Following his clerkships, J.D. worked for the Idaho State Department of Agriculture, where he assisted with implementation of food safety regulations. Afterwards, he worked for a law firm assisting mostly farm and ranch clients in Eastern Oregon and Southwestern Idaho with real estate transactions, business entity formation, contracts, and estate planning. Currently, J.D. represents the Wyoming Department of Agriculture, the Wyoming Livestock Board, the Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resources Trust Board, and other state boards and commissions connected with agriculture. 

Between undergraduate and law school, J.D. spent two years in the beautiful mountainous and rural eastern part of Taiwan, where he taught English as a second language in public elementary schools. In his spare time, J.D. especially enjoys traveling and exploring the great outdoors through hiking, skiing, hunting, and fly fishing.

Gregory Weisz

Greg joined the Water and Natural Resources Division in January 2024 after almost thirty years in private practice. While in private practice, he focused on real estate transactions and litigation, easement law, water law, general civil litigation, agricultural law, and natural resources. At the Attorney General's office, he represents many Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality agencies including the Land Quality Division, Industrial Siting Division, Solid and Hazardous Waste Division, Storage Tank department, Abandoned Mine Lands Division, and DEQ itself with general legal issues. He graduated with an undergraduate degree in Natural Resources Management and a law degree from the University of Wyoming. His prior work experience included private forestry consulting, oil & gas exploration, water treatment, ranch labor, and forest products manufacturing.

Assistant Attorneys General 

Tristan Fross

Tristan is an Assistant Attorney General in the Water and Natural Resources Division and primarily advises the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality Air Quality Division. After he was raised in Gillette and Westminster, he attended the University of Notre Dame where he received his bachelor of science in Chemical Engineering. Tristan proceeded to return to Wyoming and graduate with honors from the University of Wyoming College of Law where he participated in the natural resources moot court competition, the EENR Clinic, an externship with the Honorable Robert Sanford, and Law Review. He has litigation experience in contested cases and appeared before the Wyoming Environmental Quality Council, the Industrial Siting Council, and the District Court of the First Judicial District of Wyoming.

Patrick Kent

Patrick is an Assistant Attorney General in the Water and Natural Resources Division where he primarily advises the Wyoming Water Development Commission and Wyoming State Engineer on all aspects of Wyoming water law and administration.  Patrick also provides advice on intrastate and interstate water law, including issues related to the rivers and reservoirs in western Wyoming and the Colorado River.  He is admitted to practice law in both Wyoming and Colorado.    

Originally from South Carolina, Patrick attended Clemson University, where he obtained both his B.A. and M.A. in History.  Patrick then taught as a history professor with a passion for United States history, in particular the history of the West.  He moved to Laramie, Wyoming, in 2017 to live in the Mountain West and attend law school at the University of Wyoming.  During law school, Patrick was a recipient of the Salt Creek Energy Excellence Scholarship, Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation (currently The Foundation for Natural Resources and Energy Law) Scholarship, and worked for two well-respected natural resource law firms in Colorado.  Patrick graduated from the University of Wyoming College of Law with honors in 2020. 

Immediately prior to joining the Wyoming Attorney General’s Office, Patrick worked for a private practice firm in Wyoming, conducting both litigation and transactional work while advising clients in a wide variety of areas including oil, gas, mineral and water rights, land use and ownership, workers’ compensation, criminal law, family law, and immigration law.  Patrick has conducted briefing and oral argument in city court, state court, administrative and board hearings, federal court, and the Supreme Court of Wyoming.  

Patrick spends as much free time as possible hiking, camping, hunting, and exploring the western wilderness.

Shannon Leininger 

Shannon is an Assistant Attorney General in the Water and Natural Resources Division and represents the State of Wyoming in its natural resource litigation. Raised in Washington State, Shannon is a graduate of Clark College and Washington State University with a degree in Business Administration with an emphasis on management of innovation and change.

While attending Penn State Law, Shannon was a research assistant for the Penn State Initiative for Resilient Communities (PSIRC). PSIRC is a multidisciplinary project that helps communities become more flood resilient. Shannon also participated in the Arbitration Law Review, where she published a paper on managing storm and wastewater infrastructure. She received the CALI award for Oil and Gas, Native American Law, and Conflict of Laws. Shannon enjoys camping, hiking, reading, playing board games, and spending time with her pets.

Benjamin Peterson

Ben graduated in 2005 from the University of Wyoming with a B.A. in Secondary Education and a Minor in History. Following his first career in education, Ben graduated from the University of Wyoming College of Law in 2020. In Law School Ben worked in the Civil Legal Services Clinic and the Prosecution Assistance Clinic. He also had externships with the Honorable Justice Keith Kautz of the Wyoming Supreme Court as well as with the Honorable Kelly Rankin Chief Magistrate for the District of Wyoming. Following law school, Ben served as a law clerk to the Honorable Thomas Campbell, District Court Judge in Wyoming’s First Judicial District.