Utah attorney general candidate not yet admitted to the state’s bar, is in process

Hanna Seariac
·2 min read
Republican Trent Christensen, a former Zions Bank vice president, speaks during a 4th Congressional District GOP debate at the PBS Utah studios on the University of Utah campus in Salt Lake City on June 1, 2020. Christensen, now a candidate for Utah attorney general, is currently not a member of the Utah Bar, but is in the process of becoming admitted to the Utah Bar.

Utah attorney general candidate Trent Christensen is currently not a member of the Utah Bar, but is in the process of becoming admitted to the Utah Bar.

“Trent Christensen is not currently licensed to practice law in Utah,” Maribeth LeHoux, general counsel of the Utah State Bar, said in a statement in response to a query from the Deseret News.

The attorney general is effectively the state’s lawmaker and a requirement of office is that the person is “in good standing at the bar.”

The Utah Constitution specifies that this requirement be fulfilled by the time of election. In other words, a person could run before being in good standing at the bar as long as they are admitted to the Utah bar before election.

Christensen did not immediately return a request for comment. In an Instagram post, he said, “My paperwork was submitted last year to the Utah Bar and should be finalized in the near future.”

The Deseret News confirmed that Christensen was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in June 2009.

Utah has bar reciprocity, meaning if a person has passed the bar in another state and meets other criteria, then they can be admitted to practice in Utah. Massachusetts is one of the states that Utah recognizes as a reciprocal jurisdiction, according to the Utah Bar website.

Christensen is the chief of staff and general counsel for OmniTeq, according to his campaign website. After graduating from law school, he was an associate at Ropes & Gray LLP, a Boston-based law firm.

As a Republican candidate in the race, Christensen faces off against Frank Demcy Mylar (Republican), Rachel Terry (Republican), Derek Brown (Republican), Austin Hepworth (unaffiliated), W. Andrew McCullough (Libertarian), Michelle Quist (United Utah), Rudy J. Bautista (Democratic) and David Carlson (Democratic.).