Michael R. Orme

Assistant to the President and General Counsel

Michael R. Orme was appointed Assistant to the President, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary to BYU in December 2005. Prior to his appointment, Mike had been Associate General Counsel at BYU since 1990. He began practicing higher education law in 1982 when he was appointed as General Counsel for BYU-Idaho. Mike was also engaged in private practice in Idaho Falls, Idaho, for 10 years, emphasizing commercial law, general litigation, educational law, and appellate practice.

Mike has served as adjunct faculty in the J. Reuben Clark Law School and the Marriott School of Management and has also taught honors religion. He has lectured widely among various higher education associations and has been an active participant in the American Inns of Court movement and in the National Association of College and University Attorneys, where he served on the Board of Directors for three years. In addition, he has been a director of the Utah Community Credit Union since 1989 and served a three-year term in the 1980s as the Chair of the Idaho Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights.

After receiving a B.A. in history from BYU summa cum laude in 1975, Mike received a J.D. from the J. Reuben Clark Law School in 1978. He is rated "AV"—the highest rating for legal expertise and ethics—by the national Martindale-Hubbell directory. Mike is a member of the bar in both Utah and Idaho.

David B. Thomas

Deputy General Counsel

David B. Thomas has been with the Office of the General Counsel since 1991 and is a member of the bar in both Utah and Idaho. Dave is a 1979 graduate cum laude of the J. Reuben Clark Law School. After graduation, he clerked for Judge Marion J. Callister of the United States District Court for the District of Idaho. Following his clerkship, Dave worked for two years in Washington, D.C., as a staff attorney in the Office of the Solicitor for the Department of the Interior. Following private practice in Salt Lake City as an associate in the law firm of Fox, Edwards, Gardiner & Brown, Dave formed his own firm, Stoker & Thomas, where he focused on general commercial and complex litigation. Since joining the Office of the General Counsel, Dave has taught classes in the J. Reuben Clark Law School, the Marriott School of Management, and the College of Religious Education.

Erik G. Davis

University Counsel

Erik G. Davis has been a member of the Office of the General Counsel since 2001 and is a member of the bar in both Utah and Hawai'i. Erik is a 1996 graduate cum laude of the J. Reuben Clark Law School where he served as Executive Editor of the BYU Law Review, and holds master's and bachelor's degrees in English from Stanford University. After graduating from law school, Erik served for one year as a judicial clerk to Justice Christine M. Durham of the Utah Supreme Court. He then entered private practice in Salt Lake City as an associate first at the law firm of Van Cott, Bagley, Cornwall & McCarthy and then at Snell & Wilmer, where he practiced litigation and natural resources law. Since coming to the Office of the General Counsel, Erik has also taught a class in higher education law at the J. Reuben Clark Law School.

Paul Angerhofer

University Counsel

Paul Angerhofer joined the Office of the General Counsel in 2001. A 1997 graduate of the S. J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah, Paul holds master’s degrees in business administration and library & information science as well as a dual bachelor’s degree in Classics (Latin emphasis) and German from Brigham Young University. Before joining the Office of the General Counsel, Paul served as the Associate Director of the BYU Copyright Management Office. Prior to his appointment to the Copyright Management Office, Paul was a senior librarian in the Harold B. Lee Library, where he worked primarily with rare books and early printed materials.

Steven M. Sandberg

Associate University Counsel

Steven M. Sandberg joined the Office of the General Counsel in 2006. Steve received a B.A. in English summa cum laude from Brigham Young University in 1999 and a J.D. from Columbia Law School in 2003, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and an editor of the Columbia Law Review. After graduating from law school, Steve clerked on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit for Judge Andrew J. Kleinfeld in Fairbanks, Alaska, and then worked as an associate with Morrison & Foerster, LLP in Irvine, California.

Stephen M. Craig

Associate University Counsel

Stephen M. Craig joined the Office of the General Counsel in 2007. He graduated from BYU with a B.A. in English in 1999 and received his J.D. from the University of Arizona in 2002, where he served on law review. Prior to joining the Office of the General Counsel, Stephen practiced law in Arizona as an associate with Beus Gilbert PLLC. He focused on complex commerical litigation, primarily representing United States bankruptcy trustees in post bankruptcy financial fraud actions. Stephen is licensed to practice in Arizona, Idaho, and Utah.

Tammy Gustin

Paralegal

Tammy processes immigration and study-abroad visas for faculty, administrators, and post-doctoral students, files and renews trademarks, responds to subpoenas, and provides litigation assistance.

Betty Johnson

Administrative Assistant

Betty provides administrative support to the General Counsel and to the Office of the General Counsel, and she provides notary public services to the campus community.

Jann Tingey

Records Coordinator

Jann coordinates and manages all paper and electronic records for the Office of the General Counsel and provides administrative support to four attorneys.