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thomas r. karrenberg

(Retired)

After graduating from Columbia College in New York City in 1970, Tom joined the United States Air Force, spending four of his five years in the Air Force as an air operations and targeting intelligence officer in the Republic of Vietnam and in Germany.  After discharge from the Air Force as a captain, he attended the University of Utah College of Law where he was the Articles Editor of the Law Review and graduated in 1980 as Order of the Coif.  

Tom began his legal career as an associate in the firm of O’Melveny & Myers in the litigation department in the Los Angeles and Newport Beach offices.  He later returned to Salt Lake City, where he became a founding member of Anderson & Karrenberg, concentrating his litigation and trial practice on complex commercial litigation involving securities law, antitrust law, business contract disputes, construction cases, employment law, natural resources-related litigation, and professional liability disputes.

For decades, Tom has been locally and nationally recognized as among the top trial lawyers in the Intermountain West.   He has been consistently named among Smith & Naifeh’s Best Lawyers in America, and has maintained an AV Preeminent rating from Martindale-Hubbell® for over 25 years.

Education

  • J.D., University of Utah College of Law, 1980

  • B.A., Government, Columbia College, 1970

Admissions

  • Utah, 1982

  • U.S. District Court, District of Utah, 1982

  • U.S. Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit

Affiliations

  • Former member, Utah Supreme Court’s Advisory Committee on Rules of Civil Procedure (18 years)

  • Member, Litigation Section of the Utah State Bar

Reported Decisions

  • StorageCraft Technology Corp. v. Kirby, 744 F.3d 1183 (10th Cir. 2014)

  • USA Power, LLC v. PacifiCorp, 2016 UT 20, 372 P.3d 629

  • Marion Energy, Inc. v. KFJ Ranch Partnership, 2011 UT 50, 267 P.3d 863

  • Carlson Distributing Co. v. Salt Lake Brewing Co., 2004 UT App 227, 95 P.3d 1171

  • Hodges v. Gibson, 811 P.3d 151 (Utah 1991)

Representative Matters

  • Tom has represented numerous Utah and national companies in complex commercial litigation as both counsel for the plaintiff and defendant. In addition to successfully defending clients in cases involving multi-million dollar claims, as plaintiff’s counsel he has achieved seven and eight figure verdicts and settlements for more than a dozen clients during his career.

  • Tom has served as plaintiffs’ co-lead counsel in several national class actions involving securities law and other commercial claims, several of which resulted in multi-eight figure recoveries for the class.

  • On more than ten occasions, Tom has been chosen by his colleagues in the Salt Lake City legal community to represent their law firms when they became involved as litigants in significant complex litigation.

Recognitions

  • For more than 25 years, Martindale-Hubbell® has given Tom its AV Preeminent® rating, signifying that his peers rate him at the highest level of professional excellence.

  • For more than 25 years, Tom has been named in Smith & Naifeh’s Best Lawyers in America.