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.
