No leads yet on new deputy county attorney

Washakie County Attorney Anthony Barton said in an interview on Nov. 15 that there currently are no candidates who have expressed interest in filling the vacant position of Washakie County Deputy Attorney, left open since the departure of Amy Smith at the end of September.

Barton said, “She was good; she was motivated and she was smart, and we got along well. But, you know, people come and go, and that’s just the nature of the business, right? Amy was nice about it too; She told me she was wanting to move months before she did, she kept me apprised as she developed her plan, got job interviews, and finally her new job. She gave me as much notice as she could, even though she was not obligated.”

Since then, Barton has essentially taken on both roles, handling all civil and criminal matters that come through Washakie County. He said, “Luckily, there haven’t been too many civil matters lately and so far it’s been manageable. It’s not sustainable over the long term though, because inevitably stuff will slowly start to back up, and then it will become an issue.”

The position is listed on wyomingbar.org, with the only requirement being an active license to practice law in Wyoming, and good standing with the Wyoming State Bar.

Barton anticipated that the next opportunity for potential candidates will likely come from new law school graduates at the end of their spring semesters, about six months away.

With the prospect of a new lawyer taking the position, Barton said, “If I wind up with a recent law school graduate, they will have much less autonomy than if I get somebody who’s been an attorney for 10 years, right? Somebody with less experience wouldn’t have the kind of autonomy Amy had in this position right away. We would have to have more conversations. I may have to go to court with them more often. You know, more complex legal issues would require more of my involvement but that’s just part of getting the experience. Then as the individual becomes more experienced, I would back off. The idea is to have an autonomous attorney running that part of our operations. When I say autonomous, I mean they won’t need me to review with them on a daily day basis, right? Like, what Amy and I would do is we would talk at least once a week, usually a couple times a week, about what the case load was and what we thought about cases so that things are consistent between the two of us. That would be the goal eventually.”

In the meantime, Barton will tackle these issues on his own for as long as possible, but he expressed that he has help if he needs it. He said, “John Worrall [retired Washakie County Attorney, now private practice] has offered that if I really get swamped, or if I have a major case that really requires more than one person — there is one on my horizon — he would be willing to come back and help.”

He continued, “John’s my friend, and we stay in contact. And then there’s other attorneys in the area that I get along with, and that I think, if I asked and said, ‘Hey, look, I need someone to help. If I pay you X amount for part-time work for two weeks, will you help me with this?’ There’s enough people that I trust to do a good job, who I think I get along with well enough, who I think would say yes if they have the time. So there’s the possibility of safety valves if it really gets to that point.”