Heather Chesnut is an Assistant Attorney General in the State Agency Counsel Division. She represents the Utah Department of Corrections providing legal counsel to the Executive Board. She also appears in court representing the Department on matters concerning inmate security, inmate rights, and the enforcement of court orders. Her work touches on employment issues, information security, probation and parole, civil rights, and criminal sentencing.
Before moving to the State Agency Counsel Division she was a trial attorney in the Litigation Division, Civil Rights Section. There, she defended state agencies and employees against claims of constitutional and statutory rights violations. Her work also included tort litigation and cases involving the Utah Government Records Access and Management Act. Earlier in her career she was a criminal defense attorney at Salt Lake Legal Defender’s Association, representing indigent people charged with felonies and misdemeanors. She took more than 40 cases to trial and engaged in extensive motion practice.
Heather graduated from the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law, where she completed internships for Justice Richard C. Howe on the Utah Supreme Court and in the Natural Resources Division of the Office of the Utah Attorney General. Her studies focused heavily on the First Amendment and constitutional law, and she provided legal counsel to early online businesses regarding these rights.
