Heideman & Associates

Focus and practice areas

Heideman & Associates works out of two Utah offices, one in St. George and one in Provo. The firm handles courtroom work and transactional work under the same roof. That combination shapes almost everything else about how it presents itself.

The listed practice areas cover real estate and land use, corporate and business law, banking and finance, securities, litigation, personal injury, wills, trusts and estate planning, entertainment law, and appellate litigation. The about page adds employment law, contract law, and municipal, state and civil rights litigation. Business formation, venture capital raises and contract drafting round out the transactional side.

The firm describes itself as a litigation firm that represents clients through pre-trial, trial, and post-trial stages. In my opinion, that phrasing carries real information. Plenty of firms stop at filing and settlement. A firm that names post-trial work is signalling it stays with a case after the verdict, which connects directly to the appellate litigation entry on its own list.

How the team is built

Three attorneys appear by name on the site. Each one covers several fields, and the overlaps between them are as telling as the differences.

Justin Heideman

Justin Heideman is a partner at the firm. He received his Juris Doctorate from Mercer University. He has spent 18 years on civil litigation and estate planning, and he has also handled securities litigation and business formation.

That pairing of securities litigation with business formation matters. An attorney who forms companies and later litigates securities disputes sees both ends of the same lifecycle. Shareholder agreements, offering documents and capital structure decisions made at formation are exactly the documents that surface in a later dispute.

Justin Elswick

Justin Elswick is a senior attorney. He earned his Bachelor's, Master's, and Juris Doctor degrees from Brigham Young University. His work spans general litigation, trademark and copyright law, business and real estate law, and entertainment law.

Intellectual property and entertainment law appearing together in one attorney's practice makes sense. Entertainment matters run on licensing, rights ownership and contract terms. An attorney who handles trademark and copyright questions has the underlying grounding those agreements depend on.

Donald Reay

Donald Reay was born and raised in Provo. He received his Juris Doctor from the S.J. Quinney School of Law in 2007. He practiced his first ten years in Salt Lake County before returning to Provo, and his areas of focus include business law, real estate law, general litigation, bankruptcy, family law, adoption, probate, and estate planning.

His range is the broadest of the three. Bankruptcy, family law and adoption sit alongside business and real estate matters, which gives the Provo office coverage of personal legal questions as well as commercial ones.

What the two offices mean in practice

St. George sits in Washington County, in Utah's southwest corner. Provo sits in Utah County, roughly 250 miles north. Utah's district courts are organized by judicial district, so a firm with staffed offices in both places can appear in courts at either end of the state without treating one as an outpost.

Both offices keep weekday hours from 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM, with weekend appointments available on request. The firm offers free consultations. As a reviewer, I read the weekend-by-appointment note as a small practical accommodation for clients whose work schedules make weekday meetings hard.

General context on the work the firm names

Some of the practice areas on the firm's list follow well-defined procedural paths. Understanding those paths helps a prospective client read what any Utah firm is offering.

Appellate litigation

Appeals in Utah go to the Utah Court of Appeals or the Utah Supreme Court, depending on the subject matter and how the case is routed. Appellate work runs on the record built at trial. No new evidence is introduced. The briefing schedule, the standard of review, and the preservation of issues at the trial level all determine what an appellate court can consider. That is why a firm handling both trial and appeal in the same matter has an advantage: the trial team knows what was preserved.

Securities disputes

Securities matters can proceed in state or federal court, and some run through arbitration under FINRA rules when a brokerage relationship exists. Documentation drives these cases. Subscription agreements, private placement memoranda and communications between promoters and investors form the evidentiary core. Cases often turn on what an investor was told and what the paperwork said.

Estate planning and probate

Utah has adopted a version of the Uniform Probate Code, which allows for informal probate in uncontested estates. A will, trust documents, a durable power of attorney and a healthcare directive make up the usual planning package. Probate itself involves appointing a personal representative, notifying creditors, inventorying assets and distributing what remains. When a will is contested, the matter becomes litigation, and a firm that drafts estate documents and litigates them has visibility into both stages.

Business formation and venture capital

Forming a Utah entity means filing with the Division of Corporations and Commercial Code, then building the internal documents: operating agreements, bylaws, shareholder agreements. A venture capital raise adds securities law compliance, term sheet negotiation, and cap table management. The exemptions a company relies on at the raise stage govern who it can sell to and what it must disclose.

Reading the listing

The firm's site names its attorneys, gives their law schools, and states their years and areas of practice. Justin Heideman's 18 years and Donald Reay's 2007 graduation and ten years in Salt Lake County are specific claims a reader can hold onto. That level of detail is more than many firm sites provide.

The site does not state a founding year, and it does not publish an entity designation such as PLLC or P.C. Prospective clients who want that information can request it directly. In my opinion, the more useful signal here is the breadth of practice paired with named attorneys who each carry a defined focus, which suggests matters are assigned rather than absorbed generically.

The firm covers commercial disputes, real property questions, personal injury claims, family matters, bankruptcy, intellectual property and estate work across two Utah offices with three named attorneys.