Mark Leonard Shurtleff (born August 9, 1957) is an American attorney, former three-term

Utah Attorney General The Attorney General of Utah is an elected constitutional officer in the executive branch of the state government of Utah. The attorney general is the chief legal officer and legal adviser in the state. The office is elected, with a term of four ye ...

, and founder of the Shurtleff Law Firm and the Shurtleff Group. He was a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of the law firm Troutman Sanders and served as a Salt Lake County Commissioner prior to being elected as

Attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

of the state of Utah.

Education and early career

Shurtleff attended Brighton High School (Cottonwood Heights, Utah), Brigham Young University,

University of Utah College of Law The S.J. Quinney College of Law is the professional graduate law school of the University of Utah. Located in Salt Lake City, Utah, the school was established in 1913. It is a member of the Association of American Law Schools and is accredited ...

, and University of San Diego School of Law. Shurtleff served as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Peru. He served four years in the United States Navy as a Judge Advocate General Corps (JAG).

Career

Shurtleff was the Deputy County Attorney and a Commissioner of Salt Lake County and later became an Assistant Attorney General for the state of Utah. Shurtleff was elected Attorney General in November 2000, and re-elected in 2004 and 2008. He is the first Attorney General in Utah to win re-election for a third term. As Attorney General, Shurtleff issued an official legal opinion stating that under a second law (HB174), private school vouchers would still be funded even if voters rejected the primary voucher bill (HB 148) in a November referendum. In May 2007, Shurtleff testified before the United States Senate Judiciary Committee as a Republican in support of the Constitutionality of granting full representation in Congress for residents of Washington DC. That year Shurtleff co-founded the

Utah Meth Cops Project Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to its we ...

and raised money to provide detoxification treatment to police officers. On May 12, 2009, Shurtleff disclosed, via a Twitter message, that he planned to enter the 2010 Republican primary. On November 4, 2009, Shurtleff ended his campaign for U.S. Senate in order to spend more time with his daughter, who was experiencing health problems. That year, he co-founded the Utah Pharmaceutical Drug Crime Project, an unprecedented multi-agency, multi-disciplinary task force to combat the serious problem of

prescription drug abuse Substance abuse, also known as drug abuse, is the use of a drug in amounts or by methods which are harmful to the individual or others. It is a form of substance-related disorder. Differing definitions of drug abuse are used in public health, ...

. Partners included the DEA, FBI, Utah Departments of Public Safety and Human Services, and the Salt Lake City Police Department. In September 2010, Shurtleff testified before the

House Judiciary Committee The U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary, also called the House Judiciary Committee, is a standing committee of the United States House of Representatives. It is charged with overseeing the administration of justice within the federal courts, a ...

in support of the

Comprehensive Alcohol Regulatory Effectiveness Act Comprehensive may refer to: *Comprehensive layout, the page layout of a proposed design as initially presented by the designer to a client. *Comprehensive school, a state school that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement o ...

,Hearing on: H.R. 5034, the "Comprehensive Alcohol Regulatory Effectiveness (CARE) Act of 2010"
from the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, which includes
transcript of Shurtleff's prepared remarks
an act that seeks to reverse the effects of

Granholm v. Heald ''Granholm v. Heald'', 544 U.S. 460 (2005), was a court case decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in a 5–4 decision that ruled that laws in New York and Michigan that permitted in-state wineries to ship wine directly to consumers b ...

, a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court case that ruled unconstitutional state laws that permitted in-state wineries to ship wine directly to consumers, but prohibited out-of-state wineries from doing the same. Shurtleff's remarks were drafted by the general counsel of the National Beer Wholesalers Association. In April 2013, Shurtleff testified before the United States Senate Judiciary Committee in support of comprehensive immigration reform during the Hearing on the

Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act, S.744 Borders are usually defined as geography, geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by polity, political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other administrative division ...

In February, 2013, Shurtleff spoke on Capitol Hill in Washington DC on "The Role of State Attorneys General in Enforcing Federal Law" to Congressional staffers at the Civil Justice Caucus Academy run by George Mason University School of Law In July 2015, Mark Shurtleff, with his brother Kevin Shurtleff, started a business called MicromistNOW. The company's first product is the QuickNic Nicotine Inhaler. While attorney general Shurtleff made multiple public statements critical of the tobacco industry.

Allegations of criminal misconduct

In 2008 several articles from local news sources accused Shurtleff of corruption and bribery regarding his prosecutorial decisions. These allegations were investigated by the FBI but the United States Department of Justice took no action. In 2014 Salt Lake County District Attorney

Sim Gill Simarjit Singh Gill (born 1961) is the District Attorney for Salt Lake County, Utah, first elected to the office in November 2010. Career Before his District Attorney election, Sim Gill worked as Salt Lake City's Chief Prosecutor. Sim Gill was el ...

filed 10 felony charges against Shurtleff. Davis County District Attorney Troy Rawlings took over the Shurtleff prosecution when Shurtleff's criminal case was severed from former Attorney General John Swallow's. In July 2016 the state criminal charges against Shurtleff were dismissed on a motion by the state.

Election history

Personal life

Shurtleff is divorced with five children and eight grandchildren. He is an Eagle Scout and is fluent in Spanish. Shurtleff was honored by the Boys and Girls Clubs with their 2012 Living Legacy Award. Shurtleff was divorced on November 6, 2019 Shurtleff married Melinda (Clegg) Worley on January 23, 2020.

References

External links

Official site of Utah Attorney General
from the

Deseret News The ''Deseret News'' () is the oldest continuously operating publication in the American west. Its multi-platform products feature journalism and commentary across the fields of politics, culture, family life, faith, sports, and entertainment. Th ...

Information Sheet
from Project Vote Smart
MARK SHURTLEFF BIOGRAPHYLinkedIn Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shurtleff, Mark 1957 births Living people S.J. Quinney College of Law alumni Latter Day Saints from Utah Brigham Young University alumni Utah Attorneys General Utah lawyers Utah Republicans University of San Diego School of Law alumni United States Navy officers 2008 United States presidential electors American Mormon missionaries in Peru 20th-century Mormon missionaries