HomeUtahSalt Lake CityKarra Porter

About Karra Porter

Karra is once again the President and Managing Director of Christensen & Jensen. She is co-chair of the firm’s Commercial Litigation and Crisis Management practice groups, and is one of the most experienced and successful commercial and appellate lawyers in Utah. She has consistently been recognized by Super Lawyers/Thomsen Reuters as one of the Top 100 Lawyers in the intermountain west (Utah, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, and Wyoming), and as one of the nation’s best attorneys for corporate and commercial matters. Karra has also been consistently named one of Utah’s “Legal Elite” by Utah Business Magazine. She has also been acknowledged in the Top 50: 2023 Women Mountain States Super Lawyers Top List.

After working as a journalist in her home state of Kansas, Karra went to law school at the University of Texas at Austin, graduating near the top of her class in 1987. Karra’s specialty is complex federal litigation. She has recently handled large cases involving the Federal Trade Commission Act, Lanham Act, Internal Revenue Code, Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977, False Claims Act, Small Business Act, National Labor Relations Act, Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, and other federal and state statutes. Karra is regularly hired by other lawyers and law firms to handle complex matters and appeals, and regularly advises or represents clients in media relations and crisis management matters.

Proven verdicts and settlements

$4 million (as modified on appeal; $5 million gross jury award)Verdict

Lillian Birt was in the ICU with respiratory failure, septic shock and reduced heart function. Her children agreed to discontinue life support because they understood from her doctors that her condition was terminal and treatment was only prolonging her death. It was not terminal, and there was a high likelihood she would have recovered. She died about eight hours later.

Utah district court (modified on direct appeal, Utah Supreme Court) · 2024Medical MalpracticeRead the full story →
$2,402,000 verdict, reinstated in full on appeal ($2,250,000 noneconomic and $102,000 economic damages to Amy Herzog, plus $50,000 to her husband for loss of consortium)Verdict

Amy Herzog worked at Jupiter Bowl in Kimball Junction. During a Park City Mountain Resort employee party in April 2019, a resort employee performed a 360-degree spin and released his ball into her lane while she was freeing a stuck ball from the gutter, crushing her left hand. Three surgeries left her with a permanently deformed hand that cannot form a fist. A Summit County jury found Vail Resorts 80 percent at fault and its employee 20 percent, awarded $2,402,000, and found the employee was acting within the scope of his employment. The trial judge later vacated the employer-liability finding and cut the award by 20 percent, but the Utah Court of Appeals reversed that ruling in 2025 and reinstated the full judgment.

Third District Court, Summit County, UT (reinstated in full by the Utah Court of Appeals) · 2022Workplace InjuryRead the full story →
$2 millionVerdict

Morley Reed Sprague had advanced multiple sclerosis and lower-body paralysis and could not reposition himself. He entered Avalon Care Center with a small stage-one pressure ulcer on his right buttock. Within a month it had deteriorated to exposed bone and become infected. He never recovered and died 22 months later.

Third District Court, Salt Lake County, UT (affirmed, Utah Court of Appeals) · 2017Medical MalpracticeRead the full story →
View all 3 proven verdicts →

Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.

Practice areas

Education

University of Texas at Austin
J.D., 1987
Kansas State University
Undergraduate, 1985

Bar admissions & credentials

State Bar of Utah

Other attorneys at Christensen & Jensen, P.C.

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Proven verdicts and settlements from other Salt Lake City firms

Parker & McConkie Personal Injury Lawyers
Parker & McConkie Personal Injury Lawyers
$52.2 million · $52.2 Million Wrongful Death Verdict for the Family of Slain Polygamist Leader Rulon Allred
Cutt Kendell & Olson
Cutt Kendell & Olson
$3 million · His Mother Called 911 for Help Getting Him to a Hospital. An Officer Fired Eleven Shots at the Unarmed 13-Year-Old, and Salt Lake City Paid $3 Million.
Dewsnup King Olsen Worel Havas
Dewsnup King Olsen Worel Havas
$16,000,000 default judgment ($4,000,000 compensatory plus $12,000,000 punitive) · She Was 14 When Warren Jeffs Married Her to Her 19-Year-Old Cousin Over Her Objections. Twelve Years After She Sued, a Utah Judge Entered $16 Million Against Him and His Church.
Kesler & Rust
Kesler & Rust
$15,007,508.45 (verdict; on appeal in the Tenth Circuit) · Her Father Called for Help With Her Addiction. She Died of Dehydration in the Jail, and the Physician Assistant Did Not Come Until She Had Been Dead Twelve Hours.
Mortensen & Milne
Mortensen & Milne
$25 million · A Tilt Wand Would Have Cost the Manufacturer Nothing Instead of the Cord. A 3-Year-Old Got Tangled in It, and a Salt Lake Jury Awarded $25 Million.