Welcome to The Senate Site

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 14, 2008



SALT LAKE CITY - M. Gay Taylor, the Legislature's General Counsel, is retiring on May 30th, 2008. Ms. Taylor was hired by the Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel in 1983 as Associate General Counsel. She quickly demonstrated her many abilities and two years later was appointed General Counsel. She has served in that position for 23 years.

The General Counsel position in Utah is nonpartisan with the requirement to serve as chief legal counsel to the legislature, its majority and minority leadership, its committees, its professional staff offices, and individual members of the legislature, and to represent them in litigation in state and federal court.

As General Counsel, Ms. Taylor has served with two directors in the Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel: Richard Strong and Michael Christensen. Since her appointment in 1985, the number of attorneys in the Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel has doubled due to increased demands for bill drafting and other legal services.

Ms. Taylor oversees 14 staff attorneys and several legal support staff, acts as the revisor of statutes, and assists in the preparation of all legal opinions for legislators. She staffs the Legislative Management Committee, Senate Judicial Confirmation Committee, and the Subcommittee on Oversight. She serves as a Utah Commissioner for the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws and as a member of the Legal Services Staff Section, National Conference of State Legislatures, which she also chaired.

Among Ms. Taylor's numerous recognitions are the 1995 Honored Alumni Award from the J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University, the 2004 State and Local Government Distinguished Service Award, and the 2008 Excellence in Public Service Award, Utah Taxpayers Association.

Highlights of Ms. Taylor's tenure with the Utah Legislature include:

• Establishing the Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel as a professional and respected legal and policy office within the State of Utah;

• Shepherding the legislature's transition to the electronic age for easy access to legislative information with features including a bill tracking process, printable copies of bills, committee audio, and streaming video on the Internet;

• Implementing a program to eliminate legalese in drafting laws in order for citizens to better understand the laws;

• Overseeing significant rewrites of major portions of Utah laws, including the Tax, Human Services, Election, Judicial, Retirement, Insurance, Motor Vehicle, Transportation, Special Districts, and Labor codes, and the Government Records Access and Management Act (GRAMA), and Legislative Rules;

• Winning a unanimous Utah Supreme Court decision that established the Utah Legislature's exclusive right to judge the election and qualifications of its members; and

• Enhancing the Senate's involvement in the advise and consent process for Utah judges.

Those who have worked with Ms. Taylor in various capacities reluctantly say goodbye, and respect and appreciate the valuable and outstanding service she has provided during her 25 years of employment with the State of Utah.


NOTE:

1. A legislative hiring committee interviewed candidates today and is prepared to make a recommendation to the legislature on Gay Taylor's replacement. We will make that announcement later today after the candidates have been notified. More info here:
http://www.le.utah.gov/asp/interim/Commit.asp?Year=2008&Com=SUBRGC

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