Utah State Bar June eBulletin |
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Thanks for a Great Year as Bar President; It's Been an Honor to Serve |
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This is my last President’s ebulletin message and I want to thank you all for a great year. One of my goals as Bar President was to bring people together and it has been wonderful to get to know many of you as well as help positive relationships grow in our legal community.
We had a number of great events in May, including the 50-year luncheon and Bar Review.
It was my distinct privilege to honor those who have been licensed to practice law in the state for 50 years. Especially, Pamela T. Greenwood. She is a pioneer lawyer in the state of Utah. She became the first woman President of both the Salt Lake County Bar and the Utah State Bar and is the former presiding judge of the Utah Court of Appeals. Pamela Greenwood graduated from the University of Utah with a bachelor’s degree in music and obtained her law degree from the University of Utah College of Law where she was a member of the Utah Law Review.
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Attendees included David Anderson, Gary Atkin, Stephen Austin, J. Thomas Bowen, Leonard Burningham, Michael Doezie, Stephen Farr, Darwin Fisher, D. Jay Gamble, Pam Greenwood, R. Dennis Ickes, David Irvine, Michael Lyon, and Allen Young.
It was great to have the 2022 class of Future Leaders with us as well, including President-elect Katie Woods, next year's President-elect, Erik Christiansen, Matt Hansen, Second Division Commissioner, Beth Kennedy and Cara Tangaro, Third Division Commissioners, and Tom Bayles of the Fifth Division.
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At May’s Bar Review we were blown away by the talented attorneys we have in our Bar. We have such an incredible lineup for the final Talent Show:
Maya Anderson, original songwriter; Derek Walton, Guitar; Robert Breeze, comedy; Rick Mortensen, original songwriter; Sarah Starkey, hula-hoop extraordinaire; Judge Michael Leavitt, Guitar; Kristy Ballard, piano & vocals; Will Andrews, Guitar & Variety Act; Candice Rasdale, original songwriter; KC Ushigima, Variety Act; and the De Novo Band, consisting of Craig Howe, Keyboard, Chad Woolley, Bass, and Tracy Scott Cowdell, Lead Vocals and Rhythm Guitar. Please join us for the final Talent Show at 5:30 pm on June 30 at Brickyard Bar!
And don't forget Summer Convention! Register now and join us for “Sun, Sea, and CLE” in San Diego. In case I do not see you at the final Talent Show or Summer Convention, I wish you all a joyful summer!
Heather L. Thuet
Key Legal Group, LLC
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Mandatory Online Licensing Opened June 6 |
The annual online licensing renewal process began the week of June 6, 2022. You should have received an email outlining the renewal instructions. This email will be sent to your email address of record. You may email licensing@utahbar.org or call 801-297-7023 if you have any questions or need technical support.
Online renewals and fees must be submitted by July 1 and will be late August 1. Your license will be suspended unless the online renewal is completed and payment received by September 1.
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In-Person Summer Convention Scheduled for July 6-9 at San Diego's Coronado Island |
The Loews Coronado Bay is situated on a private 15-acre peninsula surrounded by the Pacific Ocean and Coronado Bay.
An outstanding program of events and CLE courses await you in one of the world's most beautiful cities! And if you're a golfer, make sure to register for the inaugural Richard Dibblee Open golf day!
Group Details:
Resort Fee Waived
10% Discount Off Spa Treatments
$15 Discounted Overnight Self-Parking
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Bar Commissioners Announce Summer Convention Award Winners |
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The Utah State Bar Board of Commissioners has selected the following recipients for the 2022 Summer Convention awards: |
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Laura Gray, Lawyer of the Year: Laura received Bachelor of Arts and Juris Doctor Degrees from the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah. She also holds a LL.M (Masters) in International Law from King’s College, London, England, and a Certificate in International Human Rights Law and Practice from the London School of Economics and Political Science. From 1996-2008, she owned and operated her own law firm, Laura Milliken Gray, P.C., where she specialized in estate planning, business and elder law and protecting the rights of Utah’s LGBT community. From 2008-2010, Laura took a hiatus from her law practice and moved to London, England. There, she studied international law and accepted a position as a consultant with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva, Switzerland. Laura moved back to Utah in 2010 and happily re-established her law practice, again focusing on estate planning and related areas. Utah Business Magazine has repeatedly named Laura as a “Legal Elite” in the area of Estates and Trusts. She has been recognized by her peers with the highest “AV” rating from Martindale-Hubbell International Legal Directory. In 2001, she received the Utah State Bar’s Dorathy Merrill Brothers Award for the Advancement of Women in the Legal Profession, and she has been honored several times for her work with Utah’s LGBT community. She has written, taught and presented on many aspects of estate planning and other legal areas.
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Hon. Laura Scott, Judge of the Year: “Judge Laura Scott exemplifies excellence and professionalism and is an incredible asset to the entire court system.” She serves “this state with incredible integrity and independence. She is respectful to all who come before her in court and presides without bias or partisan or personal interest. Everyone in her court is treated fairly.”
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Licensed Paralegal Practitioner Committee, Committee of the Year: Rules adopted by the Utah Supreme Court in 2018 allow licensed paralegal practitioners to practice in specific areas of law without direct involvement or supervision of an attorney. Upon the successful completion of rigorous eligibility requirements and a comprehensive licensing examination, a licensed paralegal practitioner (LPP) is permitted to practice law in a limited capacity-- doing many of the things traditionally accomplished by attorneys while charging lower fees. The court created the LPP program to improve access to justice for Utah residents. The LPP Committee has done a tremendous job in getting this new program up and running, serving the unmet legal needs in our community.
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Business Law Section, Section of the Year: “This past year the business section has made focused efforts to educate and connect the community to the resources available through business attorneys. They redesigned their website to give easy access to a section written treatise on various aspects of Utah Business Law and also made CLE recordings more searchable to other attorneys and the public. They also worked towards a collaboration between the University of Utah and BYU Law schools to harmonize the corporate code (which was approved but is now on hold because of a change in leadership at BYU where the sponsoring professor was brought into University leadership).”
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Richard Burbidge, Lifetime Service Award: “Richard and his wife, Suzanne, have recently co-founded a restorative justice initiative. This is a program to take juvenile offenders out of the juvenile justice system and reroute them into community “circles,” where the focus is healing both the community and the offender. A few years ago, Richard and Suzanne learned about a restorative justice program centered in Toronto, Canada. A woman named Eva Marszewski had established an independent community outreach organization and had persuaded judges to allow juvenile offenders to be referred to their “peacemaking” process as an alternative to prosecution in court. Over a period of 10 years, Ms. Marszewski and her team had managed to “save” over 1,000 youths, who had gone on to become productive members of the community as opposed to matriculating through the criminal justice system. Richard and Suzanne explored the idea of producing a feature-length film to outline the principles of restorative justice, and to generate public awareness and support for programs of that nature. To that end, they worked with a New York film producer and a Bay Area filmmaker to document the work of pioneers in this field. The film ultimately focused on a restorative justice program in King County, Washington. The project took 3+ years to complete. Richard and Suzanne served as executive producers and provided the bulk of the funding. The film was recently finished, and has now been selected for presentation at several high-profile film festivals, including the Canadian Hot Docs International Film Festival in Toronto, Canada; and the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival in New York City. See, for example: https://www.hrwfilmfestivalstream.org/film/a-once-and-future-peace/. Richard and Suzanne are now developing a second, shorter film that will be for policymakers. The focus of their second film will be on best practices for implementing restorative justice programs, with data manifesting the success of the programs, including their financial benefits and (of course) their enormous benefits for vulnerable young people. The goal, then, is to generate on-the-ground momentum for these restorative justice programs—in Utah, and all over the country.”
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Noella Sudbury, Distinguished Service Award: “She founded Clean Slate Utah, a non-profit organization that helps make it simple and affordable for people to clear their criminal records and access opportunities. In its first year, she raised nearly $500,000, while serving part-time as the organization’s founder and executive director, pro bono. She is also launching a similar organization, Rasa, which focuses on helping expunge the records of millions of people who are not eligible for automatic expungement. Clean Slate Utah has committed to provide some percentage of free legal services to individuals who are 200 percent below the FPL. For these efforts, she has been recognized by Utah Business Magazine as the 2019 Woman of the Year, by the University of Utah College of Law’s 2018 Young Alumna of the Year, and the Unified Police Department of Greater Salt Lake’s 2018 Citizen Service Award. Noella has served on the National Clean Slate Initiative Steering Committee, and she has worked on Clean Slate campaigns in more than a half dozen states. She is especially deserving of this award this year because of the work she has done as the executive of Clean Slate Utah and Rasa. The Clean Slate Law went into effect in March.”
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Debra Nelson, Distinguished Service Award: “Ms. Nelson tirelessly works to ensure that every single person—no matter one’s past or financial ability—receives the same access to justice as would a wealthier person. And when new challenges have come up, she has not hesitated to increase IADD’s responsibilities. She knows that it is important to have caring empathetic people making sure that people have proper representation. In just the last few months, IADD’s role has grown from being responsible for ensuring representation in criminal appeals covering most of the state to also working with parents who are trying to regain custody of their children and to providing representation for people in the post-conviction process. A lesser committed person very reasonably could have turned down any one of these new responsibilities. But not Ms. Nelson because she understands the importance of ensuring people who might not otherwise have a voice are able to be heard—whether it is a criminal conviction, a finding of delinquency against a child, or the separation of children from their parents. In the criminal context, there is a standard that each person is entitled to “effective assistance.” But for Ms. Nelson, providing “effective assistance” in any case is the floor. Every day, she leads by example to show the attorneys she oversees and contracts with that every person should receive the highest level of representation. Utah’s system of justice is fairer and more just because of Ms. Nelson’s efforts and commitment.”
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Understanding Your New CLE Compliance Cycle |
CLE Compliance is Currently Changing from a
Two-Year Reporting Period to an
Annual Reporting Period
Two Year CLE Reporting Period - These lawyers will comply with the old MCLE Rules and their final two-year CLE reporting period.
July 1, 2020 – June 30, 2022 CLE Reporting Period - the CLE requirement is 24 hours of accredited CLE, to include 2 hours of legal ethics and 1 hour of professionalism and civility. The traditional live credit requirement has been suspended for this reporting period. Lawyers will have through June 30, 2022 to complete required CLE hours without paying late filing fees and through July 31, 2022 to file Certificate of Compliance reports without paying late filing fees.
PLEASE NOTE: Lawyers that comply with the July 1, 2020 – June 30, 2022 reporting period will be required to change from a two-year CLE reporting period to an annual CLE reporting period.
Your next CLE Reporting Period will be: July 1, 2022 – June 30, 2023 – the CLE requirement is 12 hours of accredited CLE, to include 1 hour of legal ethics and 1 hour of professionalism and civility. At least 6 hours must be live, which may include in-person, remote group CLE or verified e-CLE. The remaining hours may include self-study or live CLE.
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Annual CLE Reporting Period – These lawyers will comply with the new MCLE Rules and the annual CLE reporting period.
July 1, 2021– June 30, 2022 CLE Reporting Period – the CLE requirement is 12 hours of accredited CLE, to include 1 hour of legal ethics and 1 hour of professionalism and civility. The traditional live credit requirement has been suspended for this reporting period. Lawyers will have through June 30, 2022 to complete required CLE hours without paying late filing fees and through July 31, 2022 to file Certificate of Compliance reports without paying late filing fees.
Your next CLE Reporting Period will be: July 1, 2022 – June 30, 2023 – the CLE requirement is 12 hours of accredited CLE, to include 1 hour of legal ethics and 1 hour of professionalism and civility. At least 6 hours must be live, which may include in-person, remote group CLE or verified e-CLE. The remaining hours may include self-study or live CLE.
The MCLE department is available for in-person or zoom training sessions for your organization.
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Lawyer Well-Being: Bar Provider Blomquist Hale Helps Lawyers Be Their Best |
The Bar's Well-Being Provider, Blomquist Hale, is offering a series of workshops to address anxiety and connection. The online workshops are:
Topic: Anxiety Group
Date: June 6 – July 11 (5 Weeks - Skipping July 4th)
Date: 5:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. MT
Location: Online!
Topic: True Intimacy – The Glue That Bonds Relationships Together Group
Date: June 7 – June 28 (4-Weeks)
Date: 7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. MT
Location: Online!
For more information about these workshops or other services provided to Bar members by Blomquist Hale, visit their website or call (800) 926-9619.
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"Wheels of Justice 5 Canyon Challenge" to Benefit "and Justice for All" |
Wheels of Justice is a local nonprofit working to put an end to child abuse, including by supporting the legal services offered by “and Justice for All.”
The Wheels of Justice’s annual 5 Canyons Bike Challenge is held each September. The 5 Canyons Challenge has route options for every fitness level, including one of the most challenging bike courses in the country.
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Bar Offers Marketplace Featuring Vendors Offering Services to Licensees |
The Utah State Bar has organized a Marketplace consisting of vendors offering services to Bar Licensees. These services are designed to help you in your practice. If you have questions or need additional information, please visit the Marketplace or contact the Utah State Bar.
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Charity of the Month: Disability Law Center |
The Disability Law Center (DLC) is a private, non-profit organization designated by the governor as Utah’s Protection and Advocacy (P&A) agency. Their mission is to enforce and strengthen laws that protect the opportunities, choices and legal rights of Utahns with disabilities. Under the direction of current board president Matthew Wappett, the DLC continues to work in a variety of ways to improve access to justice. You can donate through DLC's website or on your License Renewal form.
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