Utah attorney general could no longer engage in outside legal work under widely supported bill 

A bill to make clear the Utah attorney general can’t engage in outside practice of law while serving as an elected official has been making its way through the Utah Legislature with wide support.  

HB380, sponsored by Rep. Andrew Stoddard, D-Sandy, has cleared several legislative hurdles with unanimous votes of support and little debate. The House approved it last week, and Thursday it sailed easily through a Senate committee. It now awaits consideration in the full Senate. 

The bill would simply close a loophole that some attorneys and lawmakers were surprised even existed. Current Utah law already prohibits district attorneys and employees in the attorney general’s office from engaging in legal counsel outside the scope of their office, but that restriction doesn’t currently extend to the attorney general. 

Stoddard wants to mirror that language for the attorney general as a prohibition that should apply to all government attorneys. 

“In the legal world, it’s really easy to create legal conflicts,” Stoddard told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday. “So what we want to do with this bill is to focus the attorney general’s work on the matters of the state and not create any conflicts that might cause issues while they are serving as our state’s attorney general.” 

“It’s good policy that we should keep our government attorneys focused on government work.”

The bill comes after Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes faced questions over his past friendship with Operation Underground Railroad founder Tim Ballard, who is currently being sued by women accusing him of sexual assault, fraud and emotional abuse. 

Stoddard said he first floated running his bill years ago — after Reyes in 2020 spent a weekend in Nevada to review alleged voting irregularities —   so he said it didn’t directly surface from the controversy around Reyes and Ballard. 

But given frustrations with yet another scandal involving the Utah Attorney General’s Office, Stoddard recently told Utah News Dispatch he felt like “now was an appropriate time to reraise it.”

“Given the fact that (Reyes) was basically acting as general counsel for a nonprofit that, you know, it’s now come to light has had so many issues, we just need our attorney general to stay in their lane so that they can focus on the state’s issues, which are many,” Stoddard said. 

Reyes’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday about whether it’s taken a position on Stoddard’s bill. The office hasn’t weighed in on the bill in either of its two legislative public hearings. 

Outside legal work? 

A lawsuit initially accused Reyes of acting as the “de facto general counsel” for Operation Underground Railroad, claiming he forwarded complaints he received about the organization to Ballard using his personal email. 

At the time, the Utah Attorney General’s Office issued a prepared statement saying Reyes “sent a single text and made a few phone calls seeking to find common ground between two (nonprofits),” KSL.com reported. “He regrets if his communication was viewed in any other way and contributed to a feeling of undue pressure. He trusts the impartial court process to prove his motives and actions were appropriate and legal.” 

In December, the plaintiff amended that lawsuit to dismiss Reyes after she and the attorney general met, and he apologized. That month, when Reyes announced he will not be seeking re-election, he said he believed the women who have accused Ballard of assault and abuse.

“I apologized to each of them that my past friendship with Tim Ballard and strong association with OUR contributed to an environment that made them feel powerless and without a voice to fight back for many years,” Reyes said in a video explaining his decision not to seek re-election. 

Also in that video, Reyes recited a list of his accomplishments since he took office in 2013, and he said after his term ends at the end of 2024, “it will be time for me to return to my family, without an emergency case or crisis constantly pulling me away. It will be time to get back to clients and law partners.” 

Are lawmakers doing anything else to address AG issues?

With about one week left in the 2024 Legislative session, Stoddard’s bill is the only piece of legislation that’s so far gained traction this year to put new guardrails around the Utah attorney general position. 

That’s even though in the months leading up to the 2024 session, other lawmakers including Sen. Mike McKell, R-Spanish Fork, had been exploring policy changes — including asking voters to weigh in on a constitutional amendment to make the office appointed rather than elected.

There are other ideas, too. McKell has also floated possibly raising the Utah attorney general’s salary to make it more appealing to more candidates with legal expertise. 

Reyes made a total of $235,623 last year ($166,473 in wages and $69,150 in benefits), according to Utah’s transparency website. 

“As weird as it sounds,” McKell told the Dispatch last month, “I think we have a problem with that office in large part because we don’t pay the attorney general enough.” 

McKell, who works as an attorney, said “I think we’d get better candidates” for the Utah attorney general if the salary was more in line with the market. 

He said the current market rate for new associates in downtown Salt Lake City firms “is now more than what we’re paying the attorney general for the state of Utah.” 

“We need to attract a better pool of candidates, and in order to do that I think we’re going to have to pay more, for sure,” he said. 

In a statement, Reyes opposed making the attorney general’s office appointed rather than elected. 

“There is a reason 43 states elect an attorney general who can champion the rights of the People and defend their liberties without the permission of the governor, legislature or any other official,” Reyes’ statement said, arguing appointed attorneys general “can’t exercise independent discretion or decision making and they become just an extension of the governor or whomever appoints them.” 

The statement also went on to say Reyes has “been able to restore the good name” of the Utah Attorney General’s Office with “accountability, transparency and expectations for the highest quality of legal work.” 

“That is in large part because AG Reyes is independently elected and running the (attorney general’s office) like a law firm, winning milestone cases for the state, defending the laws passed by the legislature, and protecting businesses, children, and all Utahns from crime and federal overreach,” the statement said. “The Office of Legislative Counsel and Legislative Leadership has said on many occasions they have never had a better or more productive relationship with the (attorney general’s office).”

Discussions around McKell’s proposals will likely be for another legislative session. McKell said he wants to wait for the conclusion of a legislative audit into the Utah Attorney General’s Office that is currently underway. 

In November, a group of legislators expressed concerns about “the governance and oversight” of the attorney general’s office and requested the legislative audit to investigate Reyes’ relationship with Ballard and whether it impaired his work as attorney general. 

McKell said his concerns around the Utah attorney general’s office aren’t just because of the issues involving Ballard. He said they also stem from a “culmination” of concerns from past scandals.

Reyes’ predecessor, John Swallow, was accused of being part of a conspiracy with former Attorney General Mark Shurtleff to extort money and favors from a wealthy businessman. Swallow was charged but later acquitted of public corruption charges. Shurtleff’s public corruption charges were dropped.