Distinguished, Experienced, Reputable

Plant Christensen & Kanell serves the insurance industry and other businesses with a full range of legal services including but not limited to litigation services in all state and federal courts throughout the state of Utah. The firm traces it roots back for more than a century and has a long-standing reputation as one of Utah’s premier insurance defense firms.  

The lawyers of Plant Christensen & Kanell are dedicated to providing the best possible legal services to their clients and to maintaining the firm’s tradition of enduring and rewarding relationships with clients. Our method of client service puts our collective experience, research, and knowledge to work for the client, providing insightful and cost-effective solutions to legal problems and concerns.
 
Plant Christensen & Kanell is justifiably proud of the reputation it has developed. The firm holds an AV rating from Martindale-Hubbell Directory of Attorneys and is recognized in the Martindale-Hubbell Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers and in Best’s Directory of Recommended Insurance Attorneys. The firm has been the annual contributor to Best’s Digest of Insurance Laws for the state of Utah for over 30 years.  
 
“The principles of proof, then, represent the natural processes of the mind in dealing with the evidential facts after they are admitted to the jury; while the rules of admissibility represent the artificial legal rules peculiar to our Anglo-American jury-system.”
 
--Wigmore’s Principles of Judicial Proof, Second Edition, Boston, 1931, p.5

Each year our expertise in insurance law is published in Best's Insurance Digest®—which can be seen here.

MORE THAN A CENTURY OF SERVICE

Samuel W. Stewart & Charles B. Stewart in 1895

Plant Christensen & Kanell traces its roots back more than a century to the law firm Stewart & Stewart, established in 1895 in the McCornick Building, Salt Lake City, Utah. Samuel W. Stewart and Charles B. Stewart founded Stewart & Stewart on June 1, 1895. In 1900, at the age of 33, Samuel W. Stewart was appointed to the Third Judicial District Court for a four year term. Except for his service as a judge, he remained Senior Partner of the firm from June 1895 until his death in December of 1955.

Rex J. Hanson served as Senior Partner from December 1955 until his death in July of 1980. He served as President of the Utah State Bar in 1961 and 1962, and was recognized in 1979-80 by both the Utah State Bar and the American Board of Trial Advocates as Utah’s outstanding trial lawyer.

One of Rex’s sons, Timothy R. Hanson, worked with the firm until judicial appointment in 1982 to the Third Judicial District Court. Two other former partners of the firm, Ernest F. Baldwin and Leonard H. Russon, were also appointed to the Third Judicial District Court; Ernest F. Baldwin in 1971 and Leonard H. Russon in 1984. Leonard H. Russon was subsequently chosen to sit on the Utah Court of Appeals and in 1994 received an appointment as a justice of the Utah Supreme Court.

Today, the firm is known as Plant Christensen & Kanell and represents many of the largest insurance carriers doing business in the state of Utah. This specialty of the firm has historic precedent, for in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s the firm began concentrating on insurance defense cases, and has continued to serve insurance carriers and their insureds since that time.

Plant Christensen & Kanell is proud of its long Utah heritage and of its AV rating (the highest available) from the Martindale-Hubbell Bar Register, which reflects the firm’s competency and integrity. From its offices occupying the seventeenth floor of the South Temple Tower in downtown Salt Lake City, the firm is dedicated to providing quality legal service to its clients and maintaining its long-standing reputation in the Utah legal community.

History

  • Stewart & Stewart – 1895

    • (1901 – Samuel W. Stewart, Third District Court Judge)

  • Stewart, Stewart & Budge – 1906

  • Stewart, Stewart & Stewart – 1907

  • Stewart, Stewart & Alexander – 1911

  • Stewart, Alexander & Budge – 1923

  • Stewart, Stewart & Carter – 1934

  • Stewart, Stewart & Cannon – 1942

  • Stewart, Cannon & Hanson – 1947

  • Hanson & Baldwin – 1956

  • Hanson, Baldwin & Allen – 1958

  • Hanson & Baldwin – 1962

  • Hanson, Baldwin & Lybbert – 1970

  • Hanson, Baldwin, Brandt & Wadsworth – 1971

    • (1971 – Ernest F. Baldwin, Third District Court Judge)

  • Hanson, Brandt & Wadsworth – 1972

  • Hanson, Wadsworth & Russon – 1974

  • Hanson, Russon, Hanson & Dunn – 1979

  • Hanson, Russon & Dunn – 1982

    • (1982 – Timothy R. Hanson, Third District Court Judge)

  • Hanson, Dunn, Epperson & Smith – 1984

    • (1984 – Leonard H. Russon, Third District Court Judge)

  • Hanson, Epperson & Smith – 1987

  • Epperson, Wallace & Smith -

  • Plant, Wallace, Christensen & Kanell -

  • Plant Christensen & Kanell – 1999