D. Scott Crook
scottc@smithlawonline.com

D. Scott Crook served as the chair of the Appellate Section of the Utah State Bar from 2002 to 2003, chair-elect of the Appellate Section of the Utah State Bar in 2001-2002, and was a law clerk to the Honorable Norman H. Jackson, Utah Court of Appeals from 1997 to 1998. He authored Affirming the Untested: Affirming a Trial Court Based on Issues Raised Sua Sponte, UTAH BAR JOURNAL, Oct. 2001, at 10. Mr. Crook also clerked for the Honorable William H. Woodland, Idaho Sixth Judicial District Court, in Pocatello, Idaho, from 1996 to 1997.

Mr. Crook’s reported cases include Dixon v. Pro Image, Inc., 987 P.2d 48, 1999 UT 89 (Utah 1999), Southland Const. v. Semnani, 20 P.3d 875, 2000 UT 6 (Utah 2001), SME Industries, Inc. v. Thompson, Ventulett, Stainback and Associates, Inc., 28 P.3d 669, 2001 UT 54 (Utah 2001), Guardian Title Co. of Utah v. Mitchell, 54 P.2d 130, 2002 UT 63 (Utah 2002), Green River Canal Co. v. Thayn, 84 P.3d 1134, 2003 UT 50 (Utah 2003), Bradshaw v. Wilkinson Water Co., 94 P.3d 242, 2004 UT 38 (Utah 2004).

Mr. Crook received his Juris Doctor degree from Brigham Young University in 1996, graduating magna cum laude, where he was a member of the Order of the Coif. He was also an editor of the BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW and the B.Y.U. JOURNAL OF PUBLIC LAW. While attending law school, he received a number of awards and distinctions, including the Foundation Press Award for excellence in constitutional law and the Scholarly Writing Award. He obtained his Bachelor of Arts Degree in political science and Asian studies from Weber State (1993), graduating summa cum laude.

Mr. Crook is a member of the Utah State Bar, Idaho Bar Association, Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals Bar, and the United States Supreme Court Bar.

 

Scott M. Ellsworth
sme@smithlawonline.com

Scott M. Ellsworth currently serves as the chair of the Appellate Section of the Utah State Bar. He previously served as chair-elect from 2002 to 2003 and secretary/treasurer from 2001 to 2002. He is the author of Utah State Appellate Procedure, UTAH BAR JOURNAL, June/July 2000, at 8. Mr. Ellsworth received his juris doctor degree, graduating cum laude, from Brigham Young University (BYU) in 1996. During law school, he served as an editor on the BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW. Mr. Ellsworth has a master’s degree in linguistics and a bachelor’s degree in English. He taught composition, literature, logic and philosophy at BYU Idaho (formerly Rick’s College in Rexburg, Idaho) from 1988 to1993.

Mr. Ellsworth’s reported cases include Longley v. Leucadia Financial Corp., 960 P.2d 907 (Utah Ct. App. 1998) vacated, 9 P.3d 535, 2001 UT69 (Utah 2000), Nyman v. McDonald, 966 P.2d 1210 (Utah Ct. App. 1998), Williams v. Howard, 970 P.2d 1282 (Utah 1998), Brown v. Moore, 973 P.2d 950 (Utah 1998), Brown v. Sandy City Bd. of Adjustment, 957 P.2d 207 (Utah Ct. App. 1998), Naimie v. Cytozyme Laboratories, Inc., 174 F.3d 1104, (10th Cir. 1999), Harrington Properties, Inc. v. Peterson, 973 P.2d 1004, 1999 UT Ct. App. 28 (Utah Ct. App. 1999), Johnson v. Higley, 989 P.2d 61, 1999 UT App 278 (Utah Ct. App. 1999), Longley v. Leucadia Financial Corp., 9 P.3d 535, 2001 UT 69 (Utah 2000), In re Gobelman, 31 P.3d 535, 2001 UT 72 (Utah 2001), Intermountain Municipal Gas Agency v. F.E.R.C., 326 F.3d 1281, (D.C. Cir. 2003), United States Fuel Co. v. Huntington-Cleveland Irrigation Co., 79 P.3d 1281, 2003 UT 49 (Utah 2003), Green River Canal Co. v. Thayn, 84 P.3d 1134, 2003 UT 50 (Utah 2003).

During his time in law school, Mr. Ellsworth organized various international conferences on law and religious freedom, drawing clerical, scholastic, and government participation from Mexico, Argentina, England, Spain, Germany, Romania, Russia, and Mongolia. He assisted in the editing and preparation of Religious Liberty in Western Thought, No. 4, in Emory University’s Studies in Law and Religion. Mr. Ellsworth also authored Toward a New Perception of Variation among Legal Systems, the keynote article in the third volume of the International Trade and Business Law Annual, published by the University of Queensland, Australia. This earned him the 1995 Scholarly Writing Award. In 1996, Mr. Ellsworth was honored with the Utah Bar Foundation’s Ethics Award.

He is a member of the Utah State Bar, Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals Bar, and D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals Bar.

 

Brent N. Bateman
bbateman@smithlawonline.com

Brent N. Bateman was a legal intern to the Honorable Patricia J. Boyle of the Michigan Supreme Court in 1998 and, in that same year, was a recipient of the Honorable Avern Cohn Research Endowment Fund. Mr. Bateman authored Partisanship on the Michigan Supreme Court: The Search for a Reliable Predictor of Judicial Behavior, 45 WAYNE L. REV. (1999) and Annual Survey of Michigan Law: Family Law, 46 WAYNE L. REV. 875 (2000). Mr. Bateman received his Juris Doctor from Wayne State University Law School and has a Bachelor of Arts from Brigham Young University. At Wayne State he was Managing Editor of the Law Review.

Prior to joining Smith Hartvigsen, PLLC, Brent was an associate at Asher, Kullen, & Kassab, P.C., in West Bloomfield, Michigan.

Mr. Bateman is a member of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals Bar, Utah State Bar, the Michigan State Bar, and the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.

 

R. Christopher Preston
chris@smithlawonline.com

R. Christopher Preston was a law clerk to Justice Matthew B. Durrant from 2002 to 2003 and to Judge Ray M. Harding, Jr., Utah Fourth Judicial District Court, in Provo, Utah, from 2001 to 2002. Mr. Preston received his Juris Doctor degree from Brigham Young University, graduating cum laude in 2001. While attending law school, Mr. Preston participated on the international moot court team and served as a Note and Comment Editor for the BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW receiving the Scholarly Writing Award and authoring articles published in the BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW, including In re Impounded: When will the Right Against Self-Incrimination Protect Witnesses from Foreign Prosecution? (2000), and Islam in Russia Under the Federal Law on Freedom of Conscience and on Religious Associations: Official Tolerance in an Intolerant Society (2001). He also co-authored United Nations Convention Documents in Light of Feminist Theory in the 2001 MICHIGAN JOURNAL OF GENDER & LAW.

Mr. Preston is an active member of the Utah State Bar.