Practicing Law in Three States
by Carol Warnick
I practice law in three Rocky Mountain states, Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. As would be expected, there are significant differences among them, but also significant similarities. It does provide a useful perspective with regard to the trends in estate, trust and fiduciary law — at least in the western United States.
We were living in Wyoming when my youngest of four children was ready to start school full-day, which was when I finally had the opportunity to go to law school. Naturally, after graduating from law school, Wyoming was the first state in which I applied for admission to the bar and was admitted in 1990. After successfully passing the Wyoming bar exam, I was surprised and pleased to be invited to apply for admission in Colorado. Of course, I did so and waived into Colorado in 1992. Interestingly enough, about 7 years after waiving into Colorado, we moved to Denver. I kept some of my Wyoming clients and began building up a new practice in Colorado. How convenient it was to already be admitted in Colorado! I happily worked in both states, and for a while we even had a small Holland & Hart office in Casper, WY.
After working at Holland & Hart LLP in Denver for several years, it became apparent that there was an unmet demand for an attorney with estate and gift planning expertise, as well as fiduciary litigation expertise, in our Salt Lake City Office. The firm was willing to fly me back and forth to Salt Lake as needed to meet those needs. I was pretty familiar with Utah since I had attended college there, so it seemed to make sense. I actually had 3 children attending college there at the time I applied, and I was allowed to waive into Utah in 2004. Now the stage was set. I found myself with work in all three states and having to learn not only the differences in the law but also the variations in the accepted methods of doing things in all three states.
As I mentioned, there are similarities and differences. Both Colorado and Utah have adopted the Uniform Probate Code, but Wyoming has not. Both Utah and Wyoming have adopted the Uniform Trust Code, but Colorado has not. Colorado has had a beneficiary deed statute for several years, and the Wyoming legislature has just adopted one, but Utah does not have such a statute. Of course, the specifics of these supposedly uniform laws as adopted by these states contain numerous variations.
When going into court in a fiduciary litigation case, I have found the practices in the different states related to filing pleadings, getting courts to act, and what to expect at various court proceedings to be notably different from one another. When I first started practice in Wyoming, I could simply walk over to the courthouse, visit with the judge about an uncontested matter, and get his signature on an order right then and there. I’m not sure that can still be done, even in Wyoming, but it is certainly not an acceptable practice in Denver where we use the nonappearance docket for such uncontested matters, or in the Third District Court in Salt Lake City where the probate docket is heard every Wednesday morning. Of course, there are significant variations in all three states between rural counties and the more populated ones.
It definitely keeps me on my toes to adapt to the setting I am in and go with the flow in the various jurisdictions in which I represent clients. Thankfully, one constant is that there are honest and highly professional lawyers with which I have worked in each jurisdiction.
I keep copies of the court rules and the probate and trust statutes for all three states in my office and I have learned not to rely on my memory. I always look it up, whether it be a variation in a court rule or a difference in one of the provisions of a statute such as the probate code. Even if I think I know, I don’t trust my memory to keep all the nuances straightened out and in the right state box in my mind.
I have heard people say they like the practice of law because it is never the same — the issues are always new. I agree wholeheartedly with that and when you add the complexity of practicing in three states, nothing about such a practice is boring! My knowledge of the laws in the three states has also brought up some interesting issues for my clients who have ties to more than one of my states with regard to where to situs a trust and also possibly changing situs down the road after a trust has been established. It is also an interesting analysis to look at where best to bring an action in those few cases where circumstances would allow them to be brought in a couple of states.
I didn’t start out to be an attorney actively practicing in three states, it just worked out that way. But I wouldn’t change anything about it.