Jessica Johnston

While many lawyers have careers before they make the leap to lawschool, Jessica was so sure that the lawyer life was for her that she went straight through to law school at Brigham Young University after graduating from Dartmouth College, and immediately began working as a clerk, and then an associate for Strong & Hanni. She has never looked back. Jessica focuses her practice on employment law, construction contract litigation, commercial litigation, and the Affordable Care Act. In her employment cases, Jessica helps to put the pieces together for businesses and government organizations facing discrimination suits. She loves the process involved in building a defense and explaining why a company or government branch took the actions they did towards an employee. The process often feels like putting together a puzzle and plays right into her love of problem-solving. In her construction cases, Jessica has handled claims on federal, state, and privately funded construction projects, dealing with nearly every aspect of design and construction. Among her best clients are some of Utah’s leading women-owned construction companies, who she helps navigate complex contract claims in a male-dominated construction industry. Jessica’s work with the Affordable Care Act has primarily focused on helping companies make sense of the 20,000 plus pages of regulation that the government has issued associated with the Affordable Care Act and making sure that businesses are compliant with the new law as it changes almost weekly. She is one of few Utah attorneys with expertise in this new and complex area of the law, and she has used that expertise to present seminars to her clients since the law was passed.