Jonathan O. Hafen

Jonathan Hafen has extensive experience in federal and state courts with employment law issues including discrimination claims, trade secret disputes, breach of non-competition and non-solicitation covenants, as well as wage claims. Following his clerkship with the Honorable Monroe G. McKay of the U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, Mr. Hafen practiced for three years at the Chicago office of Sidley & Austin. While at Sidley & Austin, Mr. Hafen spent significant time representing Commonwealth Edison on employment and regulatory matters. Since joining Parr Brown in 1995, he has handled numerous employment cases.

Representative clients for employment issues include Rotech Healthcare, Inc., Flanders Corporation, MountainWest Telecom, eCollege, Timpanogos Wireless, and Star Buffet.

Mr. Hafen has published and lectured widely on a variety of topics including legal ethics, litigation strategy and employment contracts and covenants not to compete. He has authored or co-authored articles appearing in The Harvard International Law Journal, St. John’s Law Review,The Boston University Public Interest Law Journal, The BYU Law Review, and the Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy. Most recently, Mr. Hafen co-authored “The Law and Economics of Post-Employment Covenants: A Unified Framework,” which was published in theGeorge Mason Law Review.

Mr. Hafen has been awarded an AV rating – the highest awarded by Martindale-Hubbell.  He has been repeatedly recognized as a top commercial litigator by Best Lawyers in America, Chambers USA – America’s Leading Business Lawyers, Benchmark Litigation, and by Utah Business magazine as one of Utah’s Legal Elite.  Mr. Hafen was named “Lawyer of the Year” in Employment Law for Individuals (2015);  Labor Law – Union (2018), and (2020); Litigation-Labor and Employment (2021); and Employment Law-Management (2022) by Best Lawyers. He also continues to be recognized as one of the “Top 100” lawyers in the Intermountain area by Mountain States Super Lawyers.  Following a nomination, research and blue ribbon review process, Mr. Hafen was named one of the “Top 10” Lawyers in the Mountain States (Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming) by Super Lawyers Magazine for 2012 and “Top 100” for 2013, 2015 and 2016.

Mr. Hafen devotes a significant part of his practice to representing companies and individuals in securities litigation.  He represents both public and private companies seeking funds from public and private markets, as well as venture capital companies involved in investing in such companies.  He regularly defends companies, officers and directors facing large and small securities lawsuits or administrative actions.

Mr. Hafen has pursued and defended securities-related shareholder derivative actions, class actions, proxy disputes, and claims by minority shareholders.  He has also represented companies and individuals in enforcement actions and civil litigation brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Utah Division of Securities.

While much of Mr. Hafen’s time is devoted to defending companies and individuals facing securities claims, Mr. Hafen also has represented hundred of individual investors over the years.  Cases have ranged from pursuing international banks, accounting firms, promoters, and others involved in perpetrating investment fraud through ponzi schemes or other scams, to pursuing claims against companies and individuals for making misrepresentations in offering documents, prospectuses, and investment contracts.  For plaintiffs, Mr. Hafen has obtained multiple recoveries in excess of $1 million, including recovering over $15 million for defrauded investors in a single class action.

Mr. Hafen has been awarded an AV rating – the highest awarded by Martindale-Hubbell.  He has been repeatedly recognized as a top commercial litigator by Best Lawyers in America, Chambers USA – America’s Leading Business Lawyers, Benchmark Litigation, and by Utah Business magazine as one of Utah’s Legal Elite.  Mr. Hafen was named “Lawyer of the Year” in Employment Law for Individuals (2015);  Labor Law – Union (2018), and (2020); Litigation-Labor and Employment (2021); and Employment Law-Management (2022) by Best Lawyers. He also continues to be recognized as one of the “Top 100” lawyers in the Intermountain area by Mountain States Super Lawyers.  Following a nomination, research and blue ribbon review process, Mr. Hafen was named one of the “Top 10” Lawyers in the Mountain States (Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming) by Super Lawyers Magazine for 2012 and “Top 100” for 2013, 2015 and 2016.

Securities Practice Areas:

– Class Actions
– Investor Fraud
– Federal and State Enforcement Proceedings
– Proxy Disputes
– Derivative Cliams
– Internal Investigations

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 actions against and defending directors and officers. 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.

Following a nomination, research and blue-ribbon review process, Mr. Hafen 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 – America’s Leading Business Lawyers, 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 work for charitable organizations. He has served for many years as Board Chair of Tuacahn Center for the Arts. Tuacahn typically hosts over 300,000 patrons each year and has a positive economic impact on Washington County, Utah of over $100 million. He supports numerous professional organizations, holding numerous national leadership positions in the Federal Bar Association as well as serving in many leadership capacities for the Utah State Bar. He also serves on the Board of the Utah Tennis Association.

Mr. Hafen supports his legal community, including serving for a number of years as Chair of the Utah Supreme Court Advisory Committee on the Rules of Civil Procedure, as Chair of the Utah State Bar CLE Advisory Committee, and as an organizer of dozens of CLE conferences and 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, where he is currently the co-chair of the Chamber’s Public Policy Committee. He also serves on the Board 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 trial skills, investment fraud, antitrust law, professionalism and civility, legal ethics, employment law, securities law compliance, and litigation strategy.

To schedule a mediation with Mr. Hafen, please email Miriam Strassberg at Utah ADR: mbstrassberg@msn.com.