Lander Attorney Bailey Lazzari Featured in Interview on Rural Criminal Defense and Wyoming's Judicial Selection Process

The Cap City News interview covers Lazzari’s criminal defense and civil rights work in Wyoming and efforts to protect judicial independence.

LANDER, WY, UNITED STATES, August 14, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Bailey Lazzari, founder of Lazzari Legal, a criminal defense firm based in Lander, is featured in a new interview published by Cap City News. The interview traces her path from a six-month trial move to Fremont County in 2017 to her current role representing clients across Wyoming's municipal, state, and federal courts. It examines her work on the board of the Wyoming Trial Lawyers Association (WTLA), the state's largest voluntary legal organization.

Much of the conversation centers on what rural practice requires. Fremont County alone covers more ground than the state of Connecticut, and Lazzari discusses how distance, limited access to counsel, and each courthouse's own culture shape outcomes for defendants outside Wyoming's larger cities.

The interview also traces how Lazzari got here. She grew up in courthouses across Chicago with her father and watching him practice law, an early window into how the legal system could help people through the hardest moments of their lives. She later earned her undergraduate degree summa cum laude from Metropolitan State University before graduating cum laude from the University of Wyoming College of Law in 2017, the same year she opened Lazzari Legal in Lander.

"I wanted to build a place that empowers the people in it, my staff and my clients both," Lazzari said. "When the people who work here feel genuinely supported, that carries straight through to how they treat a client who calls us on the worst day of their life."

The interview also addresses a policy issue Lazzari has prioritized through her WTLA board seat: preserving Wyoming's nonpartisan judicial nominating commission, which vets judicial candidates on qualifications before the governor appoints from the list, rather than through partisan elections.

"The day a judge in Wyoming has to think about the political cost of a correct but unpopular ruling is the day every defendant in this state loses the thing meant to protect them most," Lazzari said. "Keeping merit selection intact is one of the most important things being done, even though almost no client will ever see it."

Since founding Lazzari Legal in 2017, Lazzari has resolved more than 1,000 cases and carries a 4.9-star client rating on Google. She was named a Rising Star by the Wyoming Trial Lawyers Association in 2023, has received Avvo's Clients' Choice Award in 2022, 2023, and 2025, and was selected by the National Trial Lawyers as one of its Top 40 Under 40 criminal defense attorneys.

She also regularly teaches other attorneys at conferences across Wyoming, including the Wyoming State Bar Association Annual Meeting, the WTLA Annual Conference, and the Solo, Small and Rural Law Forum, and her case work has drawn coverage from outlets including WyoFile and Cowboy State Daily.

About Lazzari Legal

Founded in 2017 in Lander, Wyoming, Lazzari Legal is a criminal defense firm serving clients throughout Wyoming, with a focus on Fremont, Sweetwater, and Carbon counties. The firm handles matters including DUI, drug offenses, traffic citations, assault and domestic violence charges, protection orders, restoration of rights, juvenile offenses, and game and fish violations.

Bailey Lazzari
Lazzari Legal
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