We want to celebrate Utah Law alumni's successes! Share your professional and personal accomplishments, which we’ll include in the Class Notes section of future Res Gestae issues. Submissions may be edited for length, clarity, and adherence to editorial style.
Jane Marquardt ('77)
Jane Marquardt was awarded an honorary doctorate of humanities in 2024 by Weber State University. The degree recognizes Marquardt’s commitment to social justice and equality.
Brian King ('85)
Brian King announced his plan to run for governor in the 2024 election in December 2023. King was elected to the state House of Representatives in 2008 and began his 16th session in January 2024. He currently represents District 23, which covers parts of Summit and Salt Lake counties.
Erik Christiansen ('90)
Erik A. Christiansen was named to Utah Business magazine's Utah Legal Elite list in June 2024. Christiansen is a shareholder in Parsons Behle & Latimer’s Salt Lake City office. He has more than 30 years of experience in high-stakes litigation and currently serves as Utah State Bar president.
Joan Thompson Lind ('90)
Joan Lind has been promoted to risk manager at Steel Encounters, Inc. With a strong background spanning numerous years at Steel Encounters as contract manager with the risk management team, Lind oversaw the review and negotiation of hundreds of contracts in connection with the delivery of material and services to Steel Encounters’ partners in a timely and safe manner. Lind practiced law in California for several years before moving back to Utah.
Janet Elledge ('92)
Judge Janet Elledge was appointed to the Summit County Justice Court in January 2024. After law school, Judge Elledge joined the Salt Lake Legal Defender Association, where she worked as a criminal defense trial and appellate lawyer. Following her tenure as a public defender, she established a private practice, focusing on criminal defense and limited civil matters.
In 2017, West Jordan hired Elledge as a prosecutor and later prosecution supervisor. In 2020, she joined the Summit County Attorney’s Office as justice court prosecutor and was promoted to district court prosecutor in September 2022, a role she held until her appointment to the bench.
Paul G. Amann ('93)
Paul G. Amann has received many awards for his legal work since graduation, including Attorney of the Year for the Utah Attorney General’s Office and Child Advocate of the Year by Prevent Child Abuse Utah in 2014.
Recently, Amann cleared the name of widely regarded prosecutor Chad L. Platt (‘99) through a GRAMA trial in the Third District Court. Amann also spoke on “20/20” and ESPN+ about University of Utah athlete Lauren McCluskey’s murder and to the Salt Lake Tribune about efforts to obtain transparency through GRAMA. Since 2020, Amann has represented indigent criminal defendants in Mohave County, Arizona. He was named Outstanding Attorney by the Arizona Public Defender’s Association in June 2024 in Tempe, Arizona. Numerous people in Arizona nominated him for the award.
Jared Anderson ('98)
Judge Jared Anderson was appointed by Utah Gov. Spencer Cox to serve in the Fourth District Court in September 2024. Anderson will fill a vacant position created by the legislature during the 2024 session. He has owned Anderson Law, where he practices family and juvenile law, since 2015.
Samuel E. Webb ('99)
Samuel Webb was named partner in Fox Rothschild’s Seattle IP group. Webb works with business leaders to develop global patent portfolios for critical technologies. He has prepared and prosecuted patents covering several marketed therapeutic products, provides strategic advice on the patent-related aspects of product lifecycle management, and has extensive experience leading clients through the IP aspects of the funding events, acquisitions, licensing transactions and collaborations.
Stephen Nelson ('02)
Judge Stephen Nelson was named to the Third District Court in November 2023, filling the vacancy left by Judge Randall Skanchy. He has served as assistant U.S. attorney in the national security section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Utah since 2016, prosecuting organized crime, violent crime and narcotics. Nelson previously served for 11 years as a deputy district attorney in the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office and spent two years as an assistant attorney general in the Utah Attorney General’s Office.
Jess Krannich ('05)
Jess Krannich is now a partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. His practice spans complex commercial litigation, including competition disputes ranging from trade secret and restrictive covenant litigation to intellectual property disputes, unfair competition, and antitrust litigation.
Brian Bolinder ('06)
Judge Brian D. Bolinder was appointed to the Seventh District Court in November 2023 by Gov. Spencer Cox, serving Carbon, Emery, Grand, and San Juan counties. Bolinder previously served as an associate at Suitter Axland in Salt Lake City and is a past chair of the construction section of the Utah State Bar. Until his appointment, he had served as a judge pro tem in the Salt Lake City Justice Court since 2016.
Jonathan Alan Stearmer ('06)
Since 2011, Jon Stearmer has served as the deputy county attorney for Uintah County. He has also been passionately interested in John Wesley Powell and his dangerous expeditions through the Green and Colorado Rivers and the Grand Canyon since 2019. In conjunction with this interest, Stearmer started a festival in the Uintah Basin honoring Powell and his crew members and has written, produced and debuted a full-scale Broadway-style musical, securing the rights to the featured music by award-winning artist Alan Doyle. Rep. Blake Moore and Rep. John Curtis, along with Gov. Spencer Cox and Sen. Mike Lee’s office, attended the production, and Rep. Curtis presented an official statement recognizing Powell’s achievements and the play itself before U.S. Congress in June 2024. Stearmer's play was well received by the community and elected officials who attended and highlighted not only Powell’s life and legacy, but also his concern for the water conservation of the West.
Jing Liu ('08)
Dr. Jing Liu joined Dickinson Wright’s life sciences practice group in San Diego in October 2024. Liu’s practice focuses on IP, including patent prosecution, IP asset procurement and management, clearance investigations, and licensing and collaboration strategies for life sciences companies.
Alison Adams ('09)
Alison Adams was named general counsel to the Board of Higher Education in 2022 and was appointed as the board's secretary in March 2024.
Jake Lloyd ('10)
Jake Lloyd was promoted to partner at Moulton Moore Stella (MMS) LLP on Jan. 1, 2024. Lloyd represents founders, executives and individual investors by negotiating and documenting their equity, compensation and separation packages in the context of liquidity events, new employment opportunities and fund formations. Prior to his time at MMS, Lloyd practiced in the executive compensation, ERISA and employee benefits practice groups at the Boston offices of Ropes & Gray LLP and Sullivan & Worcester LLP. He also worked as a law clerk to the late Honorable Bruce S. Jenkins of the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah.
Brittany (Cameron) Gillingham ('10)
Brittany Gillingham was appointed president and CEO of McKellar Structured Settlements on Jan. 1, 2024. McKellar is the oldest and largest structured settlement brokerage in Canada. Gillingham has been integral to the growth of McKellar’s core business, including an expansion into class actions and cross-border structures. She maintains active law licenses in Utah and Ontario and continues to lead McKellar’s legal team in addition to her executive role.
Nicole Salazar-Hall ('10)
Nicole Salazar-Hall was named to Utah Business magazine's Utah Legal Elite list in June 2024. Salazar-Hall is a shareholder in Parsons Behle & Latimer’s Salt Lake City office. Her practice encompasses all aspects of domestic law, helping individuals in complex child custody cases, complex high net-worth property divisions, and navigating cases involving the juvenile court and the Division of Child and Family Services throughout Utah. Salazar-Hall has also served on the YWCA Utah Board of Directors since 2023.
Sandi Clemens ('12)
Sandi Clemens has been appointed by Utah Gov. Spencer Cox to serve as a juvenile court judge in the Third District. If confirmed by the Utah Senate, Clemens will fill the vacancy left by Judge Elizabeth A. Lindsley’s retirement. Clemens has been an assistant attorney general in the Utah Attorney General’s Office since November 2012 and served as the section director for the Salt Lake child protection unit from March 2020 until July 2021.
Candace Gibson ('12)
Candace Gibson joined the Guttmacher Institute in 2024 as director of state policy. She oversees the institute’s work to advance evidence-based state-level policies to secure sexual and reproductive health and rights. Previously, Gibson served as the director of government relations at the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice, where she oversaw the organization’s federal policy and advocacy efforts. As a staff attorney at the National Health Law Program, she created strategies to improve access to and coverage of sexual and reproductive health care for individuals enrolled in Medicaid and in private insurance.
Jeremy M. Christiansen ('14)
Jeremy Christiansen has been named a partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP in Washington, D.C., effective Jan. 1, 2024. He represents clients from a wide variety of industries in high-stakes litigation, appellate and administrative law matters.
Clay Hardman ('15)
Clay Hardman has been named director of Gilmore & Bell's Salt Lake City office. Hardman has extensive experience in a variety of public finance transactions, with an emphasis on multifamily, single-family, and government-assisted housing, charter and private schools, low-income housing tax credits, secondary market securitizations, 501(c)(3) projects, and manufacturing facilities. He represents a variety of governmental entities, housing authorities, underwriters, lenders, credit enhancers, loan servicers, tax credit investors and syndicators, bond investors, charter schools, developers, and 501(c)(3) organizations.
Aaron Wade ('17)
Aaron Wade has been named shareholder in Gilmore & Bell's Salt Lake City office. Wade has practiced law as a municipal bond attorney with a focus on tax-exempt financings for state agencies, municipalities, and special districts in Utah and throughout the West and frequently serves as bond, disclosure, or underwriter’s counsel. He has developed expertise on the Public Infrastructure District Act, has helped cities and counties in creating districts, and has served as bond and disclosure counsel for numerous public infrastructure districts.
Simeon J. Brown ('21)
Simeon Brown has joined St. Louis-based law firm Lewis Rice as an associate practicing in the firm's mergers and acquisitions practice group. As a student at Utah Law, Simeon was executive managing editor of the Utah Law Review and inducted into the Order of the Coif.