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By Lyle Hillyard
Utah State Senator, District 25

I just returned from the annual meeting of the Uniform State Law Commissioners and witnessed an event that all political junkies in Utah should have seen. Speaker Greg Curtis is also a commissioner and was asked to serve as the Chair of a Committee of the Whole while a proposed act was being debated.

The Committee of the Whole is the entire conference and while there are about 300 attorneys who are members only about 150 to 200 are usually present during the presentation. Speaker Curtis’s job was to allow members of the drafting committee read a section and then open the group to questions or comments from the attorneys present. Speaker Curtis was given a drafting committee that had caused much concern last year when the President of the Conference tried to push the bill through the first year, which is against the tradition and pride of the group. One of the issues that had not been completed last year was a recommendation on tort immunity and, of course, the fight between the trial lawyers and the business lawyers quickly rose to the surface.

Greg handled the fight beautifully. His quick sense of humor helped lower the tension and you could quickly see that, while he did not seek this job, he had the skills to handle it. The culmination came when a former President and highly respected member of the Conference for many years made a motion which was hotly debated. Greg turned to him after the debate to sum up on this motion and the member suddenly changed the motion to something else. Greg, still in control, firmly said: Sir, I have presided over many debates but I have never let any one change their motion while summing it up. His motion failed and Greg immediately recognized him again to make the motion he wanted. I had a number of members tell me after that meeting of how impressed they were of his ability. I would just smile and say the Utah House of Representatives schools their leaders well.

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