Ahead of Utah GOP Convention, one Utah attorney general candidate still isn’t licensed to practice in Utah

Ahead of the upcoming Utah Republican Convention on April 27, one of the candidates for attorney general still has not been admitted to the bar in Utah, a requirement to assume the office.

Candidate Trent Christensen has applied for reciprocity based on his admittance to the bar in Massachusetts.

At this point, the bar has determined who will be sworn in come May. The Utah State Bar said it had a list of these applicants and all applicants on that list have already been notified. A Utah State Bar official said it would not speak about individual applicants and did not confirm or deny if Christensen will be included on the list.

In a statement to the Deseret News, Christensen said he would take the bar exam in July.

Earlier this spring, the Utah State Bar confirmed to the Deseret News that Christensen was not licensed to practice law in Utah. According to a letter from the Utah Lieutenant Governor’s Office, Christensen submitted his application for bar reciprocity in October 2023.

As Utah Republican delegates are preparing to select the party’s candidate for attorney general, the Deseret News asked the Utah State Bar if it would release the list of applicants before the convention and it declined to do so. The list will not be made public until May — after delegates select a nominee at the convention.

Christensen faces off against Derek Brown, Frank Mylar and Rachel Terry for the nomination. Christensen, Mylar and Terry all are candidates only seeking the nomination through the convention process. Brown has collected enough certified signatures to also now appear on the ballot for the June 25 Republican primary election regardless of what happens at convention.

“We are currently working through the proper channels to meet the criteria required to serve as your next Attorney General, if elected. We are in the process of meeting those requirements and have determined that the best pathway forward is to take the Uniform Bar Exam (UBE) this July,” Christensen said in a statement to the Deseret News.

“Utahns from around the state have expressed confidence in my ability to represent their values and lead them towards a brighter future,” Christensen’s statement continued. “Thank you for your support and I look forward to seeing many of you leading up to the Utah GOP State Convention on April 27th. Let’s Make Utah Great Again!”

A Republican source with understanding of the process and rules told the Deseret News that the question right now is a political one and that there are “various ways to provide recourse should it be necessary” if the convention delegates select a nominee who ultimately is not admitted to the bar.

“This is now merely a political question for delegates to consider when casting their votes and for Republican voters to consider when casting their votes should he qualify for the primary,” the source said.

A communications specialist for the Utah Lieutenant Governor’s Office referred the Deseret News to an earlier letter issued by the office and would not comment further. The earlier letter, issued in response to a complaint filed by a state delegate, said that the Utah Constitution stipulated a person needs to be admitted to the state bar before holding the office, but not necessarily before the person becomes a candidate for office.

The Utah Constitution states, “To be eligible for the office of Attorney General, a person shall be 25 years of age or older, at the time of election, admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the State of Utah, and in good standing at the bar.”

The letter from the Utah Lieutenant Governor’s Office quotes the Utah Supreme Court which noted, “The election code must be read against the background of the Utah Constitution; when it speaks to a person’s eligibility for office, it is best understood to address general prerequisites to serve in an office, not individualized grounds for qualification or disqualification to appear on the ballot.”

This means that a candidate for attorney general who is not licensed with the bar may appear on the primary and general election ballots.

Hypothetically, if Christensen was not admitted to the bar through reciprocity, a potential path forward to obtaining admission before November is to take the bar exam.

According to the Code of Judicial Administration , an applicant could take the bar exam in another state in July and attempt to transfer the score to Utah. Such a person would have to achieve a score of 260 or above and cannot have “been denied by jurisdiction on character and fitness ground.”

In that case, if a person successfully scored 260 or above and met the other eligibility criteria outlined, then they could be admitted to the Utah State Bar come October. Some states’ deadlines for signing up for the exam like Utah and Idaho have passed. There are other states including Oregon which still have a late filing deadline that has not passed yet.