We want to celebrate the successes of Utah Law alumni! We invite you to 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.
David J. Schwendiman (’76)
David Schwendiman, an S.J. Quinney College of Law adjunct professor and alumnus, took part in "Assessing the Russia-Ukraine War – Who Stops Putin?", a panel of legal experts who say prosecuting atrocities is an ‘international obligation.’ The panelists agreed it is unlikely the threat of prosecution under international law will not stop Russian President Vladimir Putin, but he can be held accountable.
Schwendiman is the deputy chief prosecutor and head of the Special Department for War Crimes of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he has served as an international prosecutor since 2006. He is responsible for war crimes policymaking and implementation, and for managing the investigation and prosecution of war crimes from the 1992 – 1995 war at the national level in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He also investigates and prosecutes his own cases in the State Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Michael O’Brien (’86)
The League of Utah Writers has awarded Monastery Mornings (Paraclete Press 2021) the Gold Quill, the League’s top award for non-fiction in 2022. Mike O’Brien, a 1986 graduate of the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law and a lawyer at Parsons Behle & Latimer, wrote the book. Mike’s book tells the story of an Ogden boy growing up at the old Huntsville monastery in Ogden Valley. This warmhearted memoir describes how a small, insecure boy with a vibrant imagination found an unlikely family in the company of monks at Holy Trinity Abbey, in the mountains of rural Latter-day Saint Utah. Struggling in the early 1970s with his parents’ recent divorce, the author discovered a community filled with warmth, humor, idiosyncrasies, and most of all, listening ears. Filled with anecdotes and delightful ‘behind the scenes” descriptions of his experiences living alongside the monks as they farmed, prayed, buried their dead, ate, and shared the joys of life, Monastery Mornings speaks to the value of spiritual fatherhood, the lasting impact of positive mentoring, and the stability that the spiritual life can offer to people of all ages and walks of life.
Camille Neddo Johnson (’89)
New Relief Society and Primary general presidencies were sustained by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Saturday, April 2, 2022.
Presented by President Dallin H. Oaks, first counselor in the First Presidency, the leaders joined six new General Authority Seventies also sustained during the Church’s 192nd Annual General Conference. The new Relief Society and Primary leaders will begin their service on Aug. 1.
President Camille N. Johnson has been called as Relief Society general president with Sister J. Anette Dennis as first counselor and Sister Kristin M. Yee as second counselor.
A former ward Young Women president, Johnson has also served as a Gospel Doctrine and Relief Society instructor and member of ward Relief Society and Primary presidencies. She and her husband were leaders of the Peru Arequipa Mission from 2016 to 2019. Johnson is a University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law graduate. She worked more than 30 years as a lawyer, and was the president of Snow Christensen & Martineau law firm.
Michael Mower (’93)
Michael Mower was the commencement speaker at Utah State University Eastern’s commencement ceremony honoring the class of 320 graduates who have earned 370 degrees and certificates.
Mower serves as senior advisor for community outreach & intergovernmental relations to Governor Cox. Prior to this, Mower held other positions in the Utah Governor’s Office, including time as deputy chief of staff to governors Jon Huntsman, Jr. and Gary R. Herbert. He is currently the longest serving senior staff member of any governor’s office in the nation.
In his role, he oversees community and intergovernmental relations for Gov. Cox and Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson. Mower has worked for one mayor, two U.S. congressmen and three Utah governors. Mower has served on many boards and commissions, including the Utah Bar Association, the Utah Prison Relocation Commission, the Utah Valley University Board of Trustees, the University of Utah S. J. Quinney College of Law Alumni Association, the Provo-Orem Chamber of Commerce, the Truth Initiative, and the J. Reuben Clark, Jr. Farm and Homestead Advisory Board.
Matt Wiese (’96)
Matt Wiese has joined Carney Badley Spellman PS and is the Chair of the Carney’s Estate Planning Practice Group. He focuses primarily in the areas of trusts and estates, closely held family business structures, and international and domestic taxation for high-net-worth individuals. He helps clients through all stages of estate planning, including probate and trust administration. He advises foreign and domestic clients on U.S. federal income, gift, and estate tax matters. Matt has also worked on significant sales of privately held companies and helps business owners with succession planning and general business law.
Jason D. Woodbury (’98)
Jason D. Woodbury, Carson City District Attorney, was the featured speaker at a democratic luncheon held on February 28, 2022.
Woodbury moved to Carson City to clerk for Judge Michael R. Griffin in 1998. Prior to his 2014 election as Carson City's 30th district attorney, Woodbury spent four years as senior deputy to Carson City District Attorney Noel Waters, serving in both the criminal and civil divisions. He spent the subsequent 12 years in private practice, including ten years with the firm Kaempfer Crowell, and is a member of the Nevada District Attorney’s Association.
Woodbury earned a Juris Doctor from the University of Utah's S.J. Quinney College of Law, where he participated in moot court and was the executive editor of the Utah Law Review.
Margaret D. Plane (’02)
Margaret D. Plane is the city attorney for Park City Municipal Corporation. She recently taught State & Local Government Law as an associate adjunct professor at the S.J. Quinney College of Law. Before joining Park City, Plane served two mayors as the city attorney for Salt Lake City Corporation. She was the legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah, where she litigated civil liberties cases and directed the local organization’s lobbying activities for three years.
Plane is a member of the Utah Judicial Council and serves on the Utah Supreme Court’s Oversight Committee for the Office of Professional Conduct. She was president of Women Lawyers of Utah; Utah delegate to the American Bar Association’s policy-making body, the House of Delegates, for ten years; president of the Aldon J. Anderson American Inn of Court; and co-chair of the Utah Supreme Court Committee on the New Lawyer Training Program. She has been recognized as Mentor of the Year (WLU); Young Lawyer of the Year (YLD); Fellow of the American Bar Association; and the Christine M. Durham Woman Lawyer of the Year (WLU).
After graduating from the S.J. Quinney College of Law, Plane clerked for the Honorable Judge Pamela T. Greenwood on the Utah Court of Appeals. During law school, she served as managing editor of the Journal of Land, Resources, and Environmental Law. She received a B.A. cum laude in Philosophy and German from Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, and an M.A. in Philosophy from the University of Utah.
Heather Thuet (’04)
Heather L. Thuet, 2004 graduate and former president of the Utah State Bar, has opened her own female-owned law firm, Key Legal Group, LLC.
Key Legal Group, LLC provides concierge legal service to its select clients. With a focus on civil litigation, Key Legal Group is a woman-owned law firm that prides itself on quality representation both inside and outside the courtroom.
In 2020, Thuet was elected to be the president of the Utah State Bar, serving until July 2022. Before that, she was elected twice by the lawyers and judges in Salt Lake to serve as their bar commissioner. She also serves on the Access to Justice Commission and is a member of the Sutherland Inn of Court and a fellow of the American Bar Foundation.
Thuet received a bachelor of science in business from the University of Utah, where she graduated cum laude. She received her juris doctor from the University of Utah where she graduated in the top 5% of her law school class, earning her the prestigious distinction of Order of the Coif.
Daniel O’Bannon (’09)
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox has named Daniel O’Bannon as his new general counsel. O’Bannon is currently director of the Utah Division of Consumer Protection where he’s served with distinction for the past nine years, testifying before the state Legislature about numerous bills and warning the public about various issues including stimulus scams, price gouging schemes and consumer fraud. Prior to that, he served as staff attorney for Gov. Gary Herbert, a research attorney in the University of Utah’s Office of General Counsel and a law clerk in the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office.
He graduated Order of the Coif from the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law where he received an Outstanding Achievement Award in State and Local Government, Criminal Procedure, Legal Profession and Business Organizations and served on the Utah Law Review. He also graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University.
Quin Stephens (’09)
As general counsel and deputy director with Utah Communications Authority, Quin Stephens has immersed himself into the world of public safety communications as it relates to the P25 upgrade, the NG911 upgrade, the expansion of the radio network, along with other projects with UCA. Stephens has both a business and a legal background, having first obtained a bachelor’s degree in marketing from the University of Utah and then a Master of Business Administration with a dual emphasis in accounting and finance, also from the University of Utah. After working for a time as the assistant controller for St. Mark’s Hospital, Stephens returned to the University of Utah to earn his Juris Doctor degree, being awarded with high honors. Quin practiced law with the law firm of Ballard Spahr LLP for seven years before joining UCA. Quin’s unique education and experience permits him to participate heavily in the day-to-day management of UCA, as well as to assist UCA as it enters into numerous contracts and agreements, and manages numerous more.
Breanne Miller (’10)
Breanne Miller was a panelist for the Student Leadership & Involvement's annual Women's Leadership Summit that took place on March 24, 2022 at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts located on the University of Utah campus.
Miller is a criminal prosecutor whose focus includes prosecution of cases involving special victims, domestic violence, homicide, and arson. She holds a Juris Doctor and Master of Public Administration from the University of Utah. Miller has extensive community involvement through her work with the Utah Democratic Party, Young Lawyers Division, Salt Lake County Democratic Party, and University of Utah Young Alumni Board. She also served as chair of the Equality Utah PAC Board.
Kyle Petersen (’14)
Kyle Petersen was named to Utah Business Magazine’s 2022 Legal Elite in the in-house counsel category. Petersen is senior counsel, data privacy and product for O.C. Tanner. Petersen initially joined O.C. Tanner as an outside private counsel before joining the company full time. He works on many of the company’s software as a service (SaaS) accounts, including some of the largest clients for O.C. Tanner.
Claymore K. (Clay) Hardman (’15)
Claymore K. (Clay) Hardman has been named shareholder in the Salt Lake City office of Gilmore & Bell, P.C.
Hardman focuses on municipal finance matters, with an emphasis on securities offerings, securitizations, secondary market transactions, mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructurings, tax credit financings, and related transactions. He represents a variety of governmental entities, housing authorities, investment banks, lenders, loan servicers, charter and private schools and various 501(c)(3) organizations.
Hardman was admitted to the Utah Bar in 2015. He received his B.S. degree from Brigham Young University’s Marriott School of Management in 2011 and his J.D. (with high honors) from the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law in 2015, where he served as the executive process editor for the Utah Law Review and president of the Business Law Society.