Rocky Anderson - Legal Career and Activism While Practicing Law

Legal Career and Activism While Practicing Law

Upon graduation, Anderson returned to Salt Lake City to practice law. He participated in several jury trials in federal and state courts and handled appeals before the Utah Court of Appeals, the Utah Supreme Court, the United States District Court for the District of Utah (in an appeal from Bankruptcy Court) and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Anderson had an extremely diverse legal practice and represented plaintiffs in dozens of major cases. Anderson practiced law for twenty-one years in Salt Lake City, beginning as an associate with Berman & Giauque and later being a partner in Berman & Anderson; Hansen & Anderson; Anderson & Watkins; and Anderson & Karrenberg. He specialized in civil litigation in several areas of law, including antitrust, securities fraud, commercial, product liability, professional malpractice and civil rights. He often represented individuals suing corporations or government entities, including plaintiffs in the following cases:

• Bradford v. Moench: A consumer rights lawsuit in which Anderson asserted a novel securities law theory and achieved, in a precedent-setting decision, broad protections for depositors in inadequately insured “thrift and loan” companies.
• Scott v. Hammock: A lawsuit in which Anderson represented a young woman who had been sexually abused by her adoptive father. During the case, Anderson challenged the right of confidentiality that the L.D.S Church had asserted regarding non-penitential communications by the defendant with his Mormon bishop.
• University of Utah Students Against Apartheid v. Peterson: A case in which plaintiffs successfully asserted their First Amendment rights to symbolic speech after the university administration ordered them to remove shanties used to protest the university's investments in South Africa. (Anderson filed an amicus brief for the ACLU in the case.)
• Armstrong v. McCotter: A civil rights case involving a young mentally ill man, Michael Valent, who, while incarcerated in prison, died from a pulmonary embolism after being strapped naked in a restraint chair for 16 hours solely because of conduct linked to his schizophrenia.
• Bott v. Deland: A civil rights case that established, for the first time, protections for the rights of incarcerated people under the Utah Constitution far broader than under the US Constitution. In that case, the Utah Supreme Court also agreed that financial damages, not limited by state statute, are available for violations of the protections provided for incarcerated people under the State Constitution.
• Regan v. Salt Lake County: A class action challenging invasive searches, including strip searches, of women held on minor violations at the Salt Lake County Jail.
• Prettyman v. Salt Lake City: A civil rights case involving the excessive use of force by police, resulting in the breaking of a rod in the plaintiff's back.
• Hale v. Loader: A lawsuit involving sexual abuse of a female prison inmate by prison personnel.
• Harding v. Walles: A civil rights case involving the sexual abuse of a male prison inmate by a prison guard.

Anderson also helped to spearhead the reform of Utah’s child custody laws. He worked to institute a program to help those who do not qualify for assistance through Legal Aid or Legal Services, but who are unable to afford to pay in full for legal representation. Anderson served as Chair of the Litigation Section of the Utah State Bar Association (when the Litigation Section was recognized by the Utah Bar Association as the Section of the Year), and as President of Anderson and Karrenberg, a Salt Lake City law firm.

When he was practicing law, Anderson was affiliated with several non-profit organizations dedicated to protecting civil rights, providing educational opportunities for economically-disadvantaged children, improving the penal and criminal justice systems, and strengthening legislative ethics. He served as president of the boards of the ACLU of Utah, Guadalupe Schools, and Citizens for Penal Reform, which he founded. He also served as a board member of several other community-based, non-profit organizations, including Planned Parenthood Association of Utah and Utah Common Cause. On behalf of Common Cause, Anderson lobbied for stronger legislation pertaining to ethical conduct by elected officials, as well as for campaign finance reform.

While he was practicing law, Anderson opposed the Reagan Administration's efforts to overthrow the government in Nicaragua and some of the Administration's other policies relating to Latin America. He organized two trips to Nicaragua for dozens of Utahns to enable them to see for themselves what was happening there.

Moved by the suffering of the friends and family members of several women who had been murdered in the Salt Lake City area, but whose killings Salt Lake City police detectives had failed to solve, Anderson worked pro bono for many months, reviewing documents and locating and interviewing witnesses. His work, together with the efforts of others, led to the eventual grand jury indictment and conviction of a man for one of the murders.