Soft-spoken attorney Alston Keith Jr. is a pervasive presence inside and outside the city’s courtrooms and his family roots run deep in Selma and Dallas County.

“I am a ‘door lawyer,'” he said. “That means I’m willing to try to handle anything that walks through the door into this office,” he said.

Keith also walks out that same door daily, spending a lot of time in the courts of Selma and Dallas County and in various organizations and groups in the city.

“It’s a general practice and very interesting. Hardly a day goes by that something new doesn’t happen,” he said. “You’re in the people business, dealing with people and the community, and assisting people. I try to give legal advice to direct people through whatever difficulties they’re going through.”

Keith’s grandfather, Chambliss Keith, whose portrait hangs over the fireplace in his office, founded the firm and built the house in 1884 for his family where the firm Keith & Keith now resides at 711 Alabama Ave.

The family home was converted into office space by Keith’s father, attorney Alston Keith Sr., 30 years ago.

Upon graduation from the Cumberland School of Law at Samford University, Alston Keith Jr. joined his father in 1969.

Originally the firm was located on Water Avenue, along with most of the other city’s attorneys, according to Keith.

“We were the first to move our offices to Alabama Avenue, and now about 75 percent of Selma’s legal community is

located within a block either way of our offices.”

Today, three other attorneys occupy space in the historic Keith building, one full time, the other two part time.

The full-time occupant is attorney George E. Jones III.

The two part-time occupants are attorneys Randy Harrell and Charles Tyler Clark.

Keith maintains a small staff that provides staff support to himself and other lawyers as agreed upon.

Keith feels blessed to have grown up and lived in Selma virtually all his life.

He graduated from A.G. Parrish High School and the University of Alabama. He received his law degree from the Cumberland School of Law at Samford University in Birmingham.

Ten years after Keith began the practice of law in his father’s firm in 1969, his father died.

“I work 40-45 hours a week,” he said. “Unlike lawyers that are beginning I can be selective about the cases I take on,” he said.

He has served as fund-raising chair for the March of Dimes and as chairman of the Red Cross. He is a member of the Rotary Club and an elder at First Presbyterian Church, though not serving on the church’s session (governing body) at this time.

Keith has also served as chairman of the Dallas County Democratic Party for the past seven years. “I’ve never run for political office nor do I intend to,” he said, “but I enjoy helping others who are.”

His wife Susan, who is community justice coordinator in the district attorney’s office, has been active in causes related to children and youth in the community and serves on the Alabama State Democratic Party Executive Committee, representing District 67, the legislative district served by incumbent Rep. Yusef Salaam.

Keith has no plans to retire. “I enjoy the fact that I’m not subject to forced retirement, and that I can continue working here in this office as long as I want.”

Keith has two sisters, one of whom is a tour guide in Paris, and two children, a son, Alston III, living in Birmingham and soon to be married, and a daughter, Alicia Keith Beers, in Tyler.