In the midst of a diverse legal career, Traci Gundersen has “come home” to Draper as the new City Attorney. She fills the vacancy created when former City Attorney Mike Barker was named City Manager. Though her residence is no longer in Draper, Gundersen lived here previously and served on the City’s Planning Commission.

 “I lived here for 11 years, I know several planning commissioners, city councilmembers, neighbors and friends. It just felt like coming back home,” she said. 

Gundersen grew up in Kaysville and “worked at Lagoon like every teenager in Davis County.” She graduated from BYU where she studied Political Science and English. A legal profession appealed to her because it’s a civilized means of resolving disputes. “I like the fact that we live with respect for the rule of law and it’s a way people can resolve disputes with one another. You don’t have to get violent,” she said. Gundersen went to law school at Pepperdine and spent eight years in Indiana working in civil litigation before returning to Utah.

Gundersen identified a favorite scenario that is rarely but sometimes achieved in law, one of creativity and compromise. “Sometimes you can come up with creative solutions that are win-wins. It doesn’t always have to be you win and you lose,” she said. 

Because she had an interest in government, Gundersen’s first job when she returned to Utah was working in the Attorney General’s office. She prosecuted real estate fraud in the Commercial Enforcement Division. Her clients were state agencies, specifically the Division of Real Estate. “There was lots of fraud leading up to the 2008 economic downturn, especially in loans. I would take licenses away from people who committed fraud. That was great education in real estate in general,” she said. 

Her work in the A.G.’s office led to Gundersen being named Director for Utah’s Division of Consumer Protection, reporting to the governor. “Managing a state agency and managing people was totally new to me,” she said. That division regulates many things including health spas, charities, professional fundraisers, for-profit universities, debt consolidators, etc. “That was a fantastic experience for me,” she said. 

Gundersen is the mother of identical twin boys, now age 13, who were born premature. Because they needed special therapies to grow and thrive, Gundersen took a break from working to stay home with them. “I really enjoyed that time of my life and setting aside the career for a little bit to take care of my children,” she said. 

She lived in Draper at the time and decided to volunteer to serve the city in some capacity using the small amount of free time she had. 

“I was appointed by Mayor (Troy) Walker to the Planning Commission. Because I had real estate experience and had been with the A.G.’s office, they thought I had a good understanding of the legal aspects of land use and how you make those decisions on zoning, licenses, permits, etc.,” Gundersen said.  

Gundersen feels her time on the Planning Commission really taught her about Draper. “I feel like I know this city now,” she said. 

She recalls the fun aspect of serving in that capacity was knowing where the new restaurants, subdivisions and businesses would be located. She found her legal background to be very helpful in that volunteer role. “The law really informs you. Sometimes you have a decision that meets all the criteria but the neighbors don’t like it. But if they meet the legal criteria, they can do it. It’s neat to go through that analysis to make those decisions,” she said. 

When Gundersen returned to her legal career, she took a job as in-house counsel for Homie, a Utah-based alternative model for real estate. “That gave me a good sense for concerns you have for a corporation,” she said. The company began to struggle and Gundersen was among several laid off. Most recently, she worked as in-house-counsel for 4Life in Sandy, a vitamin and nutritional supplement company. “I ran the compliance department and did a lot of contract reviews. I was working there happily when Mayor Walker and Mike Barker approached me. They knew me, my work, and how I thought as a lawyer. I was very flattered,” she said. 

At his State of the City speech, Walker introduced Gundersen. Walker is a practicing attorney himself who serves as part-time mayor of Draper. “She’s a very competent lawyer with outstanding legal skills. She had to take a little bit of a pay cut to work for us but we’re very glad she did,” he said. “It was a haircut, but I think it was worth it to land in a place that felt like home to me,” Gundersen said. 

Gundersen joins Assistant City Attorney Spencer DuShane. “That’s a pretty small legal shop,” she said. Her work happens primarily at City Hall. She’ll help manage various contracts the city has and advise the mayor, the city council and the city manager. According to Gundersen, the city contracts out prosecution services to a firm and is “the funding source for when someone in Draper needs a public defender.” She said it’s common for the city to hire outside legal counsel, depending on the matter, because specialized lawsuits can require that. 

Gundersen said the most common lawsuit she’s seen the city involved in is car accidents where someone involved files a suit saying the road wasn’t marked correctly, a manhole cover came off, or they ran into a concrete barrier. “Where we are liable, we handle that. Where we aren’t, we make sure we don’t pay out on things we’re not responsible for because that’s not being responsible to the citizens of Draper. Maintaining that public trust is important.” 

“What I have really liked about the city administration is their perspective and attitude is ‘we’re here to serve the people and make this a good place to live’ and they’re doing things toward that goal. There’s a sense of community they’re trying to build and maintain,” Gundersen said. 

“I like that as a priority. We want Draper to be a good place to live for our citizens.” λ