Attorneys
Emily Adams
Partner
Freyja Johnson
Partner
Sara Pfrommer
Appellate Attorney, Of Counsel
Rachel Phillips Ainscough
Appellate Attorney
Heather Ellison
Appellate Attorney
Anna Grigsby
Appellate Attorney
Jessica Holzer
Appellate Attorney
Hannah Leavitt-Howell
Appellate Attorney
Mikayla Irvin
Appellate Attorney
MJ Townsend
Appellate Attorney
Brittany Urness
Appellate Attorney
Sara specializes in family law and child welfare appeals. She won the Utah Family Defender Alliance’s Appellate Lawyer of the Year award in 2014 for In re C.C., a case that changed how Utah courts dealt with competing adoption petitions between foster parents and a family member. In 2024, she was part of a team of Appellate Group Lawyers who won the UFDA Appellate Lawyer of the Year Award again based on several appellate successes during the prior year. She has argued numerous cases in the Utah Supreme Court and the Utah Court of Appeals. Sara is admitted to practice in Utah, California, the Ninth Circuit, the Federal Circuit and the United States Supreme Court. She also serves on the Supreme Court’s Ethics and Discipline Committee, after having previously served on the Ethics Advisory Opinion Committee.
Prior to joining The Appellate Group, Sara was a partner at the AmLaw 100 firm of Shepherd, Mullin, Richter & Hampton in Los Angeles, until she came to her senses and moved to Utah. She was a bankruptcy and financial fraud litigator and has been in the trenches with several complex trials and many evidentiary hearings under her belt. She is a self-proclaimed “procedural and jurisdictional goddess.”
When Sara’s not busy wrestling some thorny question to the ground, she is obsessed with tennis and loves travel.
Education
UCLA School of Law
J.D., 1978
Law Review
Moot Court
Giles Sutherland Rich Intellectual Property Tournament Team, national winner Best Written Brief Award
UCLA
B.A., English
Admissions
Utah
California
Ninth Circuit
United States Supreme Court
Awards
Appellate Lawyer of the Year, UFDA (2024)
Appellate Lawyer of the Year, Utah Family Defender Alliance (2014)
Professional Involvement
Utah Supreme Court’s Ethics and Discipline Committee