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SALT LAKE CITY — A former U.S. attorney for Utah could become a federal judge.
President Donald Trump has nominated David B. Barlow to serve as a judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah. The nomination is subject to Senate approval.
Barlow is a partner in the Salt Lake City office of Dorsey & Whitney, where his law practice focuses on representing companies in civil litigation and white-collar investigations.
With his nomination to the federal bench, Barlow has the distinction of being nominated by both a Republican and a Democratic president.
President Barack Obama nominated and the Senate confirmed Barlow as Utah's new U.S. attorney in 2011. He held that job until 2014.
Barlow earned an undergraduate degree from Brigham Young University and a law degree from Yale. He worked for the highly regarded Chicago law firm Sidley Austin, the same firm where Michelle and Barack Obama worked and met.
Barlow served as chief counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee for Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah. He also was a vice president for Walmart’s health and wellness businesses, including more than 8,000 pharmacies, optical centers and medical clinics throughout the country.
At his induction ceremony as U.S. attorney, Barlow said he was committed to the rule of law and the Constitution. A U.S. attorney's role is to enforce the law impartially, to see that the guilty not escape and the innocent not suffer, he said.
"Keeping an open mind and hearing the other side plays an important role," Barlow said. Listening, he said, may or may not result in a change of direction or outcome, but "a better answer, a better approach may come from unexpected sources."
During his tenure as U.S. attorney, federal prosecutors filed an 86-count fraud indictment against St. George businessman Jeremy Johnson in March 2013 in connection with his once-lucrative internet marketing enterprise, iWorks. Johnson is now in prison.
In May 2013, Barlow removed his office from investigations into former Utah attorneys general John Swallow and Mark Shurtleff without explanation. He turned the case over to the Department of Justice Public Integrity Section, which five months later declined to file criminal charges against the two Republicans. Johnson was a key witnesses the cases.
In private practice, Barlow has conducted numerous internal investigations for clients in more than a dozen states and countries in North America, Europe and Asia, according to his Dorsey & Whitney bio. He has represented clients in both civil and criminal cases in state and federal courts.
