07/30/2026
Last month my law partner, Kimball Jones, was honored by the Nevada Justice Association by being named Trial Lawyer of the Year alongside legal powerhouse Barbara Gallagher-Kidwell. It was a special treat to watch Kimball receive this award at the NJA’s Summer Gala in Las Vegas. 😍
Leading up to this night, I had the opportunity to write a short article about Kimball, with a lot of help from our colleague Dan Singer. The article appeared in the NJA’s print publication, The Advocate. I will share that article below, if you are interested. ⬇
Congratulations, Kimball. I am so proud of you and I am so proud and honored to be your partner. 🦄
Congratulations to Barbara - you are an incredible trial lawyer and we are all honored to have the opportunity to work alongside you.
Congratulations to Tick Segerblom for receiving the Lifetime Achievement award, to Assemblymember Selena Torres-Fossett for the award of Consumer Advocate of the Year, and to Adam Ellis and Arlette Newvine, the 2026 Club X Rising Stars! The NJA is better because of all of you! 👏
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By Jacqueline Bretell & Dan Singer
Would you believe me if I told you that there was once a time that Kimball Jones said he did not want do trial work, and that he just wanted to “manage people”?
It’s true. I swear it’s true.
I spend a lot of time thinking about how different the lives of so many people would be if Kimball had not realized he, perhaps, lacks the velvet glove of diplomacy to “manage people”.
Kimball grew up in a small town in Arizona, the youngest of twelve (six brothers and five sisters), many of them talented athletes. It makes sense that Kimball, the baby (runt) of the family, would have no choice but to develop a tremendous amount of grit.
After graduating high school Kimball made his way to Peru for two years, where he became fluent in Spanish and the art of marching forward no matter how many times you are told “no”.
Upon returning from Peru, Kimball settled down in Idaho to complete his undergraduate studies, while holding a job and also serving as BYU-Idaho’s Student Body President. It was there that he met the love of his life, his partner in all things and the best person ever – Ashley. They married in October of 2003 and welcomed their first child, a son named Kaden, in 2005.
Kimball went on to attend law school at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah where he graduated in 2008. That same year, they welcomed their daughter, Jocilyn. The economic recession thwarted his employment plans, so he went to work in a soul-wrecking job in banking, before joining the Army, where he worked as a Counterintelligence Special Agent. In 2011 they welcomed their third child, Savannah. Eventually, Kimball left the Army’s full-time position to move to Nevada to join his law school classmate and friend, Ryan Anderson, at Bighorn Law.
Kimball was not yet barred when he joined Bighorn Law, so he did what any of us would do: he became the firm’s Receptionist. Thankfully, bar passage finally came, and by 2013 Kimball was representing clients in-and-out of the courtroom.
The same year that Kimball went from receptionist to attorney, the Joneses also welcomed their fourth child to the family – Wes. Until 2016, Kimball juggled the role of being a husband, father, and trial lawyer while also continuing his service in the Army National Guard.
It was around that time that Kimball realized that while he could be a good manager of people, he had the potential to be a great trial lawyer.
On the eve of the 2020 pandemic Kimball was already well on his way to earning that title. With a $13.6 million medical malpractice verdict secured in November of 2019, Kimball was ready for his next trial when everything shut down. When the days were uncertain and time slowed so much it nearly stopped, Kimball dove headfirst into the world of Courtroom View Network and JAVS videos before eventually launching into Trial Lawyers University. When the rest of us were out panic-buying toilet paper, Kimball was re-watching Robert Eglet’s voir dire on grainy JAVS, and parsing through Sean Claggett’s closing arguments.
It took nearly two years for Kimball to step into a courtroom to pick his next jury. By that point, there was no stopping him. Kimball was at the beginning of what would become an impressive streak of 7 and 8-figure verdicts over the next several years.
In late 2023, as we sat down to map out our firm’s 2024 goals, Kimball made the announcement that his goal for the next year was to obtain a 9-figure verdict. I’ll be honest – we just stared at him. But Kimball knew and believed what we could not yet appreciate – that not only did we have a client deserving of a 9-figure verdict – he believed we had many.
Here’s what happened next:
• August 2024: $108 million jury verdict in a Progressive case involving first-party insurance bad faith due to their refusal to pay policy benefits, requiring litigation.
• October 2024: $550 million jury verdict against a drunk driver for wrongful death, the largest single-event tort jury verdict in Nevada history.
• January 2025: $114 million jury verdict against USAA in a first-party insurance bad faith case, which gained national coverage, exposing systemic insurance abuses.
And all of these are in between other 7 and 8-figure jury verdicts.
I know what you are probably thinking – but Jacquie, it’s easy to get big verdicts when those clearly great cases just walk in your door. No. No, it’s actually not. It’s one thing to have great clients or great facts—it’s quite another thing to be able to convince other people to see the best in your case as well. Kimball does that.
If I have learned anything from Kimball over the years, it is that few of us understand the value of harms and losses quite like him. Kimball has an innate ability to truly see people. Kimball sees their motivations and their hopes—but his greatest quality is the ability to see their inherent dignity. I have seen Kimball look at people who—to be blunt, are hard to love—and he will tell me something incredible about that person’s childhood, or the family they raised. Kimball sees the best in them.
It’s one thing to be able to see those qualities in your clients—it’s something far more difficult to get others to see the same thing. Kimball has devoted himself to becoming a master storyteller. My favorite moments of his trials are when I look over at the jury and they are focused entirely on what Kimball is telling them. The eye contact is only ever broken when they occasionally peer over and give a sympathetic look towards a picture of the client that Kimball is speaking about.
Kimball does this at the office too. Instead of being a diplomat, Kimball is the firm’s catalyst. The same ability Kimball has to see the good in clients is even more present with the people Kimball works with. He has a unique ability to see into the hearts of those on his team and to understand their true talents and motivations.
Kimball Jones doesn’t just sacrifice for his clients or for his employees—he’s deeply committed to the work of the NJA, ensuring that our firm always has 100% participation within the organization. Kimball has contributed to article writing for the NJA’s written publication, has taught at bootcamp and other smaller CLEs, and has also committed to sharing his work with others at the annual Convention. But, the greatest example of his commitment to and his friendship with his fellow attorneys is evident in how many people have Kimball’s cell phone number. Kimball is always willing to take a call from a colleague in need – even when sitting in a meeting with his law partners!
To close, Kimball loves being a lawyer. His love of helping people is more than a job, it’s his calling. Year after year, Kimball has convinced not only his wife to go to law school and become an attorney—he has convinced his brothers, and his kids to do the same. As more and more of the Jones family joins the firm with the same passion for helping people that need it most, the rest of us are literally just doing our best to keep up with the Joneses!
Kimball Jones is more than just a trial lawyer. He is a fierce advocate, he is a protector, and he is a friend. For all these reasons, Kimball Jones is our Trial Lawyer of the Year.
