Like many of you, I came to Utah to attend law school—and forgot to leave. It was the best decision I never made.  In 1999, I started at the SJ Quinney College of Law. This year, I will attend my 10-year reunion.  Over the years, I have served as a judicial clerk, a litigator at Ray Quinney & Nebeker, and now in-house counsel for Zions Bancorp. I have had the privilege of meeting many bar members through my involvement in the Young Lawyers Division, the Utah Minority Bar Association and Women Lawyers of Utah.

I believe that the Bar ultimately should be a resource to its members. As President of the Young Lawyers Division (2010-2011), I focused on this principle with the creation of three new committees (CLE, Recession Response and Networking) designed to help young lawyers gain the skills necessary to succeed during difficult economic times. As an ex-officio member of the Bar Commission (2010-2011), I have observed and participated in the Commission’s decision-making process and know how it can be used to enhance our resources. If elected, I plan to infuse new ideas to existing programs to make them run in a more efficient and cost effective manner with the ultimate goal of freeing up resources for new programs and services. An example of how I’ve implemented this strategy in the past can be seen in the Bar’s effort to enhance the image of lawyers in Utah. (You may have heard the ads that were part of the media campaign on the radio.) This issue is an important one that impacts each member of the Bar. As President of the Young Lawyers Division, I thought the young lawyers should help with the effort. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the resources to make a monetary contribution, so instead we focused our efforts on creating newsworthy service projects that would highlight the positive contributions of lawyers in our community.

In 2010-2011, articles about the service provided by young lawyers in Utah appeared in the Deseret News, the Salt Lake Tribune and Good Things Utah. Our Cinderella Boutique was “adopted” by Disney. It was highlighted in Disney’s Salt Lake City screening of the movie “Prom” and publicized on Radio Disney. Through these efforts, the Young Lawyers Division was able to contribute to the cause without spending additional funds. This is the kind of innovative thinking that I can bring to the Bar Commission.

During these difficult economic times, we have all been asked to do more with less. By thinking outside the box we can do more for our members with the resources currently available. If elected to the Bar Commission I will focus on the critical task of providing and increasing significant and reliable resources without increasing costs. I hope you will support me in this effort.

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