James Dodge Russell & Stephens, P.C.

Bios

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  Mark F. James

  Attorney

  Mark James has practiced law in Salt Lake City since 1988. He has extensive trial experience representing clients in federal and state courts. For over twenty-five years, Mr. James' law practice focused on complex commercial and tort litigation, both on behalf of plaintiffs and defendants. He has represented clients in a wide variety of disputes, including those involving intellectual property, securities, trade secret, product liability, eminent domain, contracts, estate and trust disputes, insurance coverage, real property, ownership and control of businesses, derivative actions, construction law, personal injuries, and class actions. Mr. James also has extensive experience with disputes involving multilevel marketing companies and their distributors, disputes involving false advertising, misappropriation of trade secrets, cross-recruiting, interference with contract, and covenants not to compete. He has a reputation for being a skilled, efficient trial lawyer. He frequently has been praised by both clients and peers for his skilled and efficient approach to litigation. Mr. James' clients have enjoyed significant successes both at trial and in negotiated settlements. His trial successes include, among others, a jury award of over $24 million against DHL (Express) USA, Inc. for breach of contract, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, and tortious interference. Settlements include a $15 million recovery in a fraud class action along with numerous other significant recoveries. In addition, he has successfully defended many companies and individuals against a variety of different claims. He also has acted as a court-appointed receiver and a court-appointed special master. Mr. James' practice now focuses primarily on mediation. He has mediated hundreds of cases involving a wide-variety of disputes in areas that include complex commercial litigation, torts (including personal injury and wrongful death), construction defects, and intellectual property. Mr. James has a no-nonsense "get it done" approach to mediation, and he is unhesitant to employ an out-of-the-box approach to resolve disputes. He firmly believes that as the mediator, it is important during mediations that he be there "to the very end" with counsel and their respective clients. Mr. James has mediated numerous multi-million dollar disputes, including many disputes involving "bet-the-company" litigation. Since 2004, Mr. James has been recognized annually in Utah Business Magazine by his peers as one of Utah's "Legal Elite." He also has been recognized by Mountain States Super Lawyers annually since 2007, including on multiple occasions as one of the top 75 or top 100 and, most recently, one of the top 10, lawyers in the Intermountain region. Mr. James has served as President, Vice-President, and Secretary-Treasurer of the Aldon J. Anderson American Inns of Court. He is rated AV Preeminent® by Martindale-Hubbell (the highest possible rating). He also is a Certified Public Accountant.

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  Link: Mark F. James

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  Gary A. Dodge

  Attorney

  Gary A. Dodge focuses his practice primarily on energy and utility matters. Mr. Dodge represents a broad spectrum of energy clients, including customers interested in green energy tariffs, energy project developers, industrial and commercial energy users and municipal and cooperative utilities, with a specific emphasis on renewable energy. His representation of commercial and industrial customers includes green tariff arrangements, power and natural gas purchase and sale agreements, utility contracts, utility litigation and business litigation. His representation of municipal and cooperative utilities includes renewable power projects, power and gas contracts, regulatory matters, utility issues and commercial litigation. He has appeared in administrative proceedings before public utility/service commissions in most western states and before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Mr. Dodge's clients include the Utah Association of Energy Users, which includes Air Gas, American Pacific, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Energy Strategies, Hexcel, Intermountain Healthcare, Micron, Northrup Grumman, Simplot Phosphates and Utah State University. Other clients include Deseret Power Company, Park City, Payson City, Provo City, Salem City, Salt Lake City, Spanish Fork City, St. George City, University of Utah, US Magnesium, and Utah Municipal Power Agency.

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  Link: Gary A. Dodge

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  Phillip J. Russell

  Attorney

  Phillip serves as the President of the firm and focuses his practice on energy, utility, and telecommunications matters. He represents a broad spectrum of energy clients, including industrial and commercial energy users, municipal and cooperative utilities, and renewable energy project developers. His representation of commercial and industrial energy customers includes negotiation of power and natural gas purchase and sale agreements, utility contract negotiations, energy project development, utility rate cases, utility litigation and general business litigation. His representation of municipal and cooperative utilities includes project development, contract negotiation, power and gas purchase agreements, regulatory matters and commercial litigation. He has appeared in administrative proceedings before public service commissions in Utah and Wyoming and before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Phillip's energy clients include the Utah Association of Energy Users, which includes Airgas, American Pacific Corporation, Chevron U.S.A., ConocoPhillips, Hexcel Corporation, Intermountain Health Care, Northrup Grumman, Simplot Phosphates, Texas Instruments, Utah State University, and Wal-Mart; Magnum Energy, LLC; US Magnesium LLC; the University of Utah; Payson City; Salem City; Spanish Fork City; St. George City, Deseret Power; and various renewable energy developers. Phillip also represents the Community Renewable Energy Agency in its efforts to develop a Program with Rocky Mountain Power to enable residents in numerous Utah Communities to receive 100% of their electricity needs from renewable resources. Phillip represents telecommunications clients in a broad range of matters, including general litigation matters and with respect to applications filed with the Public Service Commission of Utah seeking a certificate of public convenience and necessity, designation as an eligible telecommunications carrier, and competitive entry. Phillip's recent telecommunications clients include Frontier Communications; SpaceX; Commnet Wireless, LLC; Telrite Corporation, among others. Phillip also handles a wide variety of commercial litigation matters, including disputes related to contracts, trade secrets, patents, real estate development, corporate malfeasance, business torts, and real property disputes, among others.

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  Link: Phillip J. Russell

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  Mitchell A. Stephens

  Attorney

  Mitchell A. Stephens focuses his practice on litigation and has successfully represented clients in both state and federal courts. When representing plaintiffs, Mitch has recovered tens of millions of dollars for his clients. His successes include a jury award of over $24,000,000 in a commercial contract and tortious interference dispute. Recently, he forced a $8,500,000 settlement from a national insurer after its wrongful denial of coverage. He also has helped his clients recover millions of dollars in MLM / network marketing disputes, eminent domain actions, and trust and estate disputes. When representing defendants, Mitch again has successfully litigated high-stakes claims. His successes include a multi-week arbitration trial where the plaintiff asserted commercial contract and fiduciary duty claims and sought more than $36,000,000. The final arbitration award was the dismissal of the plaintiffs’ claims with prejudice and no damages awarded. In a different matter, Mitch represented the defendant in a bench trial where the plaintiff asserted contract and fraud claims in excess of $1,800,000. Again, the result was a dismissal of the plaintiff’s claims, with no damages awarded. Mitch frequently and successful has defended clients accused of violating non-compete or non-solicit provisions. Mitch also maintains an active professional liability defense practice. He has successfully represented some of Utah’s most prestigious law firms, as well as AmLaw 100 clients. Since 2018, Mitch also has served on the Utah Supreme Court’s Ethics & Discipline Committee, which reviews allegations of lawyer misconduct. Although the majority of Mitch’s time is spent in the trial court, he is comfortable defending his successes on appeal. He has won cases in front of the Utah Supreme Court, the Utah Court of Appeals, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Before joining James Dodge Russell & Stephens, P.C., Mitch served as a Law Clerk to the Honorable Carolyn B. McHugh of the Utah Court of Appeals. He graduated from the University of Utah’s S.J. Quinney College of Law in 2007 with Highest Honors.

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  Link: Mitchell A. Stephens