David O. Leavitt

David Leavitt was born to Dixie and Anne Leavitt, the fifth of six brothers. He was raised in Cedar City, Utah, spending his summers living with his grandmother and working on the family farm changing sprinklers, building fence, and hauling hay. He credits the influence of his grandmother and the years working on the farm as the most formative experiences of his life.

He attended Cedar City High School where he participated in basketball, choir, band, orchestra, and student government as student body president. He graduated from high school in 1982 and thereafter accepted an opportunity to serve as a missionary in the Spanish speaking barrios of New York City for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

David is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

He met Chelom Eastwood on their first day of classes at the J. Reuben Clark Law School in Provo, UT. They married in 1988 in the Seattle, Washington LDS Temple. Chelom has a JD from BYU and a PhD in Human Development from The Pennsylvania State University. She is a professor at Brigham Young University. They have seven children, four of whom are married. Their oldest son attended the United States Military Academy at West Point and currently serves as a First Lieutenant in the United States Army. Their four daughters attended Brigham Young University. Their oldest daughter is a History PhD candidate at Harvard University. David and Chelom have two teenage boys living at home. As a family, they have lived in Utah, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Ukraine, and Moldova.

David is a baritone in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. In 2015 he was cast as the Bishop in a production of Les Misérables at the Alliance Theater in Atlanta, Georgia. Formerly he was a member of the central Pennsylvania barbershop quartet, Harmony, PA.

David Leavitt graduated with a B.A. in English from Brigham Young University in 1988. He attended J. Reuben Clark Law School from 1988 to 1991, with the intent to join the family insurance business. However, during law school, classes which focused on criminal justice and advocacy caught his interest and ultimately persuaded him that his talents were more suited for the criminal law. Accordingly, after graduating from law school and passing the Utah Bar Exam, David and his wife Chelom (also a lawyer) moved to Fillmore Utah to begin a rural law practice together. The Leavitt's practiced law together from 1991 to 1995, with David focusing on criminal defense and city government as the city attorney and Chelom focusing on estate planning and family law. In 1995, David Leavitt was appointed to serve as the Juab County Attorney.

Leavitt served as Juab County Attorney for eight years, from January 1995 to January 2003. During his eight years in office, Leavitt served as the advisor to the Juab County Commission and other elected county officials. As Juab County Attorney, he also was the chief law enforcement official in the county. As such he personally prosecuted more than 1500 felony cases and supervised the prosecution of nearly 8000 misdemeanor cases. David gained prominence for his successful prosecution of Utah's first polygamy case in 50 years. The case garnered international attention, highlighted many of the abuses found in such relationships, and was the precursor to other polygamist related prosecutions in Utah, Texas, and Canada.

Leavitt lost his bid for a third term by 22 votes in November 2002, at which point he re-entered private practice with an emphasis on criminal defense.

In 2004, Leavitt accepted an invitation to provide technical assistance to the Supreme Court of Ukraine. In 2005, Leavitt co-founded The Leavitt Institute for International Development—an international legal reform charity which provides legal assistance to Eastern European governments and which teaches American law and advocacy in 38 law schools in Ukraine, Poland, Romania, and Moldova. In addition to advising the Supreme Court of Ukraine, Leavitt has also served as a legal advisor to Former Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, and the Moldovan Ministry of Justice.

Leavitt served as Executive Director of the Leavitt Institute for International Development (TLI) from December 2005 to July 2017, with a brief hiatus in 2008 to run, unsuccessfully, for Utah's Third Congressional District seat. While David served as Executive Director of TLI, TLI received grants from the U.S. Embassies in Ukraine, Moldova, and Rwanda to advance legal reform in each of those nations. Additionally, over 200 lawyers and judges from the United States and Canada have volunteered more than 25,000 hours of service in advancing TLI objectives in Eastern Europe and Africa.

Leavitt challenged Sean Reyes, the incumbent Attorney General of Utah, in the 2020 Utah elections.[1]

• Leavitt Institute for International Development Official Web Site
• David Leavitt Flickr