Vol. 30, No. 1 #1 (February 2007). Cindy DeLancey.

• Author: Carbon County's First Female County Attorney

Wyoming Bar Journal

2007.

Vol. 30, No. 1 #1 (February 2007).

Cindy DeLancey

WYOMING LAWYER February 2007/Vol. 30, No. 1 Cindy DeLancey: Carbon County's First Female County Attorney

By Mary Angell Cindy DeLancey doesn't waste any time. She's a business owner; a wife and mother; an attorney; and now, Carbon County's first female county attorney. And she's become all of these within the last six years.

Not long ago, she was a dental assistant, intrigued by the career of her older sister, a New York attorney.

"I just thought that was kind of neat," DeLancey said. "I was interested in what her practice was, and I thought it would be a good career--an interesting career."

So she went to law school at the University of Wyoming. She graduated in 2000 and passed the bar exam the following year. She practiced with the Rawlins firm of MacPherson, Kelly and Thompson for several months before marrying Dave DeLancey and moving to Laramie, where she worked for Child Support Services of Wyoming. DeLancey soon returned to Carbon County, where she served as deputy county attorney for a year. Then, in 2003, she took the job of Assistant Attorney General in the Department of Criminal Investigation.

Not only was DeLancey the first woman in Wyoming to hold that position, she was only 30 years old at the time.

"The majority of agents in DCI are men," she said. "A lot of the men I had to give legal advice to had been in law enforcement maybe as long as I had been alive."

"It was an exciting career opportunity," she added. "The staff and agents were wonderful to me. It was a real positive point in my career to have that opportunity. I loved being a member of the criminal division."

While working in the Carbon County Attorney's office and the AG's office, DeLancey also took on some assignments for the U.S. Attorney's office as special assistant to the U.S. Attorney.

"It was a really neat opportunity for me," she said. "The U.S. Attorney's office is the cream of the crop. That was one of the highlights of my career thus far."

Her broad experience as a prosecutor gave DeLancey a genuine affinity for working for law enforcement, so she set her sights on the County Attorney's office.

"I like helping people, sometimes people who don't have much of a voice, and being able to be that voice in the pursuit of justice," she said.

There's a simple reason she's Carbon...