Email:rbishop@btjd.com
Mr. Bishop is an associate in the firm’s corporate, general business transactional, and estate planning groups. Mr. Bishop assists clients with various business law matters, including formation, structure, corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, contract drafting, and other business transactions.
Mr. Bishop also practices in the firm’s estate planning section, where he assists clients with various estate planning matters, including wills, trusts, and probate proceedings.
Born in Salt Lake City, Utah Foreign Languages: Spanish Married, 4 children Interests include baseball, basketball, music, reading, movies, spending time with his family, and comedy.
Email:dbybee@btjd.com
Mr. Bybee works with the firm’s estate planning and taxation groups with a focus in the areas of federal and state taxation, estate and gift tax planning, and probate and trust administration. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Bybee practiced at a Salt Lake City firm where he practiced in the areas of estate planning, water law, public policy, and local government law.
Mr. Bybee is married and has 7 children. In his free time, Mr. Bybee enjoys spending time with his family, playing golf, watching sports, and spending time outdoors.
Email:dconnors@btjd.com
David Connors was appointed as a Utah District Court Judge by Governor Jon M. Huntsman, Jr. and began his service in January 2008, after over 25 years of nationwide private practice experience as a commercial litigator handling complex civil litigation. He retired as a judge in March 2023. While a judge, he handled hundreds of mediations, arbitrations and trials, including Judicial Settlement Conferences (mediations conducted by a judge who is not the assigned judge on a case). In private practice, he was an early advocate of mediation and arbitration as efficient methods for settling high conflict disputes. Prior to his time on the bench, Judge Connors focused his practice as a business lawyer and commercial litigator for large national and international law firms.
In addition to his judgeship and private law practice, Judge Connors has a long history of public involvement, including service as a city council member and Mayor of Farmington, Utah, and service on various public committees, commissions and boards, such as the Davis County Council of Governments, Wasatch Front Regional Council, Davis Education Foundation, and Economic Development Corporation of Utah.
Brigham Young University, J. Reuben Clark Law School (J.D. degree, magna cum laude)
Yale University (B.A., Political Science)
Interests include fly fishing, golf, spending time with four children and eleven grandchildren, and acting as roadie and amateur sound engineer for his wife, Cori Connors, who is a nationally and internationally recognized singer-songwriter.
Email:mgiles@btjd.com
Mr. Giles works with the estate planning and taxation groups with a focus in the areas of federal and state taxation, estate and gift tax planning, probate and trust administration and guardianship and conservatorship law. He develops complex estate planning strategies and assists clients in implementing and administering their customized estate plans. He represents individual and entity taxpayers before the Internal Revenue Service and Utah State Tax Commission regarding income, estate and employment tax issues. Mr. Giles also advises businesses and their owners regarding the tax implications of entity choice, operations, and acquisition transactions of all sizes.
Born in Taylorsville, Utah Married, 5 children
Email:kmargetts@btjd.com
Mr. Margetts’ experience includes tax planning for business formations, financings, acquisitions, reorganizations, and liquidations; advising on tax aspects of complex business and real estate transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, and like-kind exchanges; design and implementation of deferred compensation arrangements and equity incentive plans; resolution of federal and state tax controversies; and formation and qualification of exempt organizations.
Mr. Margetts also has extensive estate planning experience, including the design, drafting, and implementation of sophisticated estate plans to meet unique tax and nontax objectives.
Foreign languages: Spanish and Portuguese Married, 5 children Interests include backpacking, hiking, cycling, and gardening.
Email:jmatson@btjd.com
Mr. Matson represents privately held companies, investors, and entrepreneurs in complex business transactions, with particular focus in business formation corporate restructuring, private equity and venture capital transactions, securities offerings and regulation, intellectual property licensing, corporate governance and compliance work, trademark and other general business, commercial and contractual matters.
Mr. Matson’s practice also encompasses all aspects of real estate law, including sales, purchases, leasing, financing, development and redevelopment, easements, CC&Rs, owner’s associations, development agreements, due diligence review for title and survey matters and associated agreements.
Born in Ogden, Utah Foreign Languages: Norwegian Married, 5 children Interests include reading, running, basketball, softball, golf, and spending time with family.
Email:cmcbride@btjd.com
Ms. McBride is an associate in the firm’s estate planning and taxation group. Her practice focuses on estate and gift tax planning, probate and tax administration, and guardianship and conservatorship law.
University of Utah, S.J. Quinney College of Law (J.D. 2024)
Brigham Young University (B.A. Political Science, 2021)
Outside of work, Ms. McBride enjoys reading, playing board games, and trying new restaurants with friends. She also likes researching her Swedish ancestry and traveling with her husband. Ms. McBride is also conversational in American Sign Language and Russian.
Email:dparkinson@btjd.com
Mr. Parkinson focuses on Estate Planning, Probate, Elder Law, Guardianships, Contested Estates, and Tax and Business Planning.
Mr. Parkinson served as President of the Mountain States Pension Conference (1985-1987), Chairman of the Tax Section (1985-1986), as Chairman of the Elder Law Section of the Utah State Bar (2019-2020), and as a member of the Board of Directors of the Outdoor Resources Foundation of Utah (1988-2007). He is currently serving as a Board member of the Elder Law Section of the Utah State Bar and as a member of the Board of Directors of the Holladay Community Messiah Foundation. He also serves as a member of the Probate Subcommittee of the Advisory Committee to the Utah Supreme Court on the Rules of Civil Procedure.
Married, 5 children Interests: Backpacking, fishing, running, pioneer history.
Email:rtippett@btjd.com
Robert S. (Rust) Tippett is a partner at Bennett Tueller Johnson & Deere in Salt Lake City. His practice focuses on all aspects of estate planning, including trusts, probate, estate and gift taxation and conservatorships. He is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC), and is a member of ACTEC’s Asset Protection and Legal Education Committees.
Mr. Tippett holds a B.A. from Yale University and a J.D. from the University of Michigan. From 2003 to 2008 he served as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Southern California (USC) Gould School of Law. He is currently an Adjunct Professor at the Brigham Young University (BYU) J. Reuben Clark School of Law.
Mr. Tippett was the principal author of Utah’s asset protection trust statute, which was signed into law by the Governor on March 28, 2013.
Mr. Tippett has appeared on the Court Roster of Approved Mediators for the State of Utah, and is a member of the Utah Council on Conflict Resolution. He is available to mediate probate and trust disputes.
Mr. Tippett was selected as one of Utah’s “Legal Elite” by Utah Business Magazine in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020.
In addition to authoring The Utah Law of Trusts & Estates (a comprehensive 700-page legal reference treatise) and other materials available at www.utahestateplanning.org, Mr. Tippett has published and presented many articles and papers in the trust and estate field.
Email:sjennings@btjd.com
Newly joining the firm after moving from Texas to Utah, Ms. Jennings has 13 years of experience in oil and gas law, probate and estate administration, estate planning, real estate law, corporate law and governance, civil litigation as well as working in the Texas Attorney General’s Office.
California University of Pennsylvania (B.A. English, 2009)
You can find Ms. Jennings on her mountain bike, traveling, hiking, or being anywhere outdoors.
Email:hturner@btjd.com
Ms. Turner has been with the firm since 2016 and works with the firm’s corporate and estate planning groups. Among many things, Ms. Turner’s experience includes work relating to corporate formation and governance, transaction closings, estate plan preparation and funding, trust and estate administration, and real estate matters, including boundary issues. Ms. Turner was one of the first to be commissioned as a Remote Notary in the State of Utah and maintains such commission as a convenient option for the firm’s clients.
Married, one child, two dogs, one cat. Interests include skiing/snowboarding, hiking, fly fishing, camping, horseback riding, gardening, baseball, photography, plants, and generally anything outdoors.