Jonathan Hafen has been involved in hundreds of mediations during his career and is widely regarded as an effective problem solver. He takes an active approach as a mediator, providing candid feedback and bringing energy and creativity to negotiations.
Mr. Hafen’s litigation practice is split almost evenly between representing plaintiffs and representing defendants. As a trial lawyer, he has handled a wide variety of litigation, including in the areas of securities and investment fraud on behalf of plaintiffs and defendants, employment law on behalf of employees and management, disputes over ownership and control of businesses, multi-level-marketing disputes on behalf of companies and distributors, disputes over non-competition and non-solicitation agreements, breach of contract cases, trade secret cases, eminent domain and easement cases, receiverships, road and access cases, regulatory enforcement actions and investigations, intellectual property disputes, class actions, legal malpractice cases, accounting malpractice cases, and bringing and defending actions against officers and directors. Mr. Hafen’s clients include large multi-national businesses, mid-size businesses, and start-ups, as well as individuals and classes of individuals. Most recently, he has devoted a significant portion of his time serving as the court-appointed Receiver in a $200 million precious metals Ponzi scheme.
The Utah State Bar recently named Mr. Hafen its “Lawyer of the Year.” He is a past national president of the Federal Bar Association, one of the country’s largest national associations of lawyers and judges. Following a nomination, research and blue-ribbon review process, Mr. Hafen also was named one of the “Top 10” Lawyers in the Mountain States (Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming) by Super Lawyers Magazine. Mr. Hafen also has been repeatedly recognized as a top commercial litigator by Best Lawyers in America, Chambers USA, Benchmark Litigation, and by Utah Business magazine. In recent years, Best Lawyers has named Mr. Hafen “Lawyer of the Year” in both Employment Law for Individuals and Employment Law for Management.
Mr. Hafen maintains an active license in Utah, Wyoming, and Illinois, and has been involved in cases throughout the country. He is admitted to practice in all Utah, Wyoming, and Illinois state and federal courts, numerous federal courts of appeal and the United States Supreme Court.
Prior to joining his current firm, Mr. Hafen graduated summa cum laude from BYU in 1988, magna cum laude from BYU Law School in 1991, clerked for Monroe McKay, Chief Judge of the U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, and worked at one of the nation’s most prestigious law firms, Sidley Austin (Chicago).
Mr. Hafen is heavily involved in community service. For example, he has served for many years as Board Chair of Tuacahn Center for the Arts, which hosts over 400,000 patrons each year and has a positive economic impact on Washington County, Utah of over $125 million annually. He is also a Board member of the Utah Tennis Association.
Mr. Hafen supports his legal community as well, including serving for eight years as Chair of the Utah Supreme Court Advisory Committee on the Rules of Civil Procedure, as President of the A. Sherman Christensen Inn of Court, as Chair of the Utah State Bar CLE Advisory Committee, and as an organizer of more than 100 CLE presentations. In recognizing his mentoring of many other lawyers, the Utah State Bar awarded Mr. Hafen the inaugural Charlotte Miller Mentoring Award.
Mr. Hafen is also active in Utah’s business community, having served for many years on the Salt Lake Chamber’s Board of Governors and as co-chair of the Chamber’s Public Policy Committee. He also serves as Board Co-Chair of Utah’s Women’s Leadership Institute and on the Board of the Utah Center for Legal Inclusion.
Mr. Hafen has published and lectured widely on a variety of topics, including mediation, negotiation, trial skills, investment fraud, antitrust law, professionalism and civility, legal ethics, employment law, securities law compliance, and litigation strategy.