Led by Attorney General Derek Brown, the Executive Team decides legal actions for the Office and guides its overall direction. The Chief Deputy, Solicitor General, Civil Deputy, Criminal Deputy, Public Protection Deputy, and Administrator comprise the Executive Team.
Daniel Burton
Chief Deputy Attorney General and General Counsel
Stanford Purser
Solicitor General
Stanford Purser was appointed Solicitor General in March 2024. He has worked in the Office of the Attorney General since 2011, first as an attorney in the civil appeals division for four years and then as the civil appeals division director and Deputy Solicitor General for more than eight years. Before joining the Office, Stanford practiced at two large law firms, including K&L Gates, where he focused on civil appeals and complex commercial litigation. In his more than twenty years of legal practice in the private and public sectors, Stanford has handled, been involved with, and consulted on a wide variety of cases and issues in trial and appellate courts at both the state and federal levels.
Stanford graduated cum laude, with University Honors, from Brigham Young University. He then graduated magna cum laude and was a member of the Order of the Coif and Law Review from the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University. After law school, he worked as a judicial clerk on the Utah Supreme Court for Justice Stewart and Justice Durrant. He then clerked for Judge Monroe McKay on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
Stanford and his wife Mary—also a BYU undergrad and law school graduate who clerked on the Fourth District Court and the Utah Supreme Court—have four children.
Mark E. Burns
Civil Deputy Attorney General
Mark E. Burns has dedicated 29 years of service to Utah’s citizens through his Office of the Attorney General work. Since becoming Division Director in 2013, he has led the Highways & Utilities Division, which provides legal counsel to some of the state’s largest agencies. Under his leadership, Mark’s division has provided strategic legal counsel to complex state agencies, including the Utah Department of Transportation, the Department of Public Safety, the state’s utility regulatory authorities, and the Utah Transit Authority.
Mark has extensive experience in eminent domain litigation, real property management and acquisition, infrastructure and capital improvement projects, public procurements, ethics compliance, and government transparency laws.
Beyond his division leadership, he has represented the Governor’s Office in extradition matters, served as lead counsel in Utah’s Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement litigation, and contributed to the Judiciary as a volunteer small claims court judge. His career reflects a steadfast commitment to public service and the state of Utah.
Douglas Crapo
Public Protection Deputy Attorney General
Douglas Crapo started his legal career as an O’Hara Fellow practicing natural resource law for the Office of the Attorney General. After his fellowship, he clerked for the Honorable Tena Campbell at the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah. Then, he practiced health-care law and complex business litigation at Manning Curtis Bradshaw & Bednar and most recently at Magebly, Cataxinos, & Greenwood.
Douglas served as White Collar Commercial Enforcement Division Director before his appointment to Public Protection Deputy. In that position, he stayed busy continuing the long battle of Utah seeking recovery of funding from the pharmaceutical industry players that brought and prolonged Utah’s opioid epidemic. He and his team work on enforcing many laws that protect the public as they represent their clients and colleagues in the Utah Department of Commerce’s Division of Consumer Protection, the Division of Securities, the Division of Professional Licensing, and Division of Real Estate.
Before Douglas’ legal career, he grew up in the middle of a potato field in Southern Idaho. He studied literature and filmmaking at Northwestern University and began his non-farming career practicing publicity at the Sundance Film Festival. He moved to New York and marketed arthouse films for Samuel Goldwyn Films throughout the country. Douglas returned West, started a family, and graduated in the Order of Coif from the University of Utah’s S.J. Quinney School of Law.
Stewart Young
Criminal Deputy Attorney General
While in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Utah, Stewart Young served as Senior Litigation Counsel and Training Officer. He also worked in the Financial Fraud Section, the Violent Crime Section, and the Narcotics Section. He has been lead or co-counsel on twenty felony jury trials and 22 appellate briefs. Young recently returned from Amman, Jordan, where he served as a counterterrorism prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice.
Stewart has investigated and prosecuted public corruption, bribery, mail/wire fraud, Ponzi schemes, criminal tax violations, narcotics trafficking, and continuing criminal enterprise. He has also trained federal prosecutors at the National Advocacy Center and been responsible for large-scale investigations involving multiple defendants relating to complex white-collar and securities violations, narcotics trafficking, and violent street gang-affiliated conspiracies.
Stewart, a Stanford Law School and Princeton University graduate, started his prosecutorial career as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of California. He spent several years as a tenure-track law professor at the University of Wyoming College of Law, teaching classes on criminal procedure, criminal adjudication, and border crimes. He also clerked at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and for Judge Paul Cassell at the United States District Court for the District of Utah.
John Dougall
Administrator
John Dougall is a former State Auditor who took office on January 7, 2013, and served until January 2025. He was recognized for enhancing transparency in state finances and increasing accountability within government operations.
Before his role as State Auditor, John served for a decade in the Utah House of Representatives, ultimately holding the House Vice Chair of Executive Appropriations position. He focused on evaluating government programs and agencies, advocating for tax reform, transparent governance, performance management, and fiscal responsibility. Throughout his legislative career, he held various leadership positions, including chair of the House Revenue & Taxation standing committee, chair of the House Ethics standing committee, and co-chair of the Health & Human Services Appropriations subcommittee.
In addition to his political career, John has worked in the technology sector, where he held management and technical positions in both large companies and small start-ups. He earned his Master of Business Administration from Brigham Young University in 2000, as well as a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from the same institution. John also recently graduated from Syracuse College of Law.
