Trent Nelson
Managing Attorney
Trent has litigated against national insurers and large corporate defendants in state and federal court, including class action and mass tort work. He was named a 2026 Super Lawyers Rising Star and a National Trial Lawyers Top 40 Under 40, and he is admitted in California and in the Eastern and Northern Districts of California.
With over a decade of legal experience — twelve years in law firms, nearly five as an attorney — he came up through the case files before he came up through the bar. Investigating, building records, and watching how cases are actually won. That's still how he works, and it's why clients get a straight answer about where they stand before they're asked to commit to anything.
His practice covers insurance bad faith, disability and life benefit denials, trust and probate disputes, elder abuse, consumer fraud, and estate planning. Across all of it, the client is an individual or a family and the other side is an organization with more resources and a legal department on retainer. That's the work he set out to do — raised in a family dedicated to public service, he built the firm to represent people rather than the institutions on the other side of them.
A lifelong athlete, he brings the same preparation and discipline to a file that he brought to the field. In practice that means being ready before the other side is.
Accolades:
- 2026 Northern California Rising Stars, Super Lawyers
- 2025 National Trial Lawyers Top 40 Under 40
- Juris Doctor, Lincoln Law School of Sacramento, magna cum laude
- Bachelor of Science, California State University, Sacramento, Criminal Justice, magna cum laude
Admissions:
- State of California
- Federal Districts of California
Affiliations:
- Capitol City Trial Lawyers Association
- Barristers' Club of Sacramento
Karen Keener
Office Manager
Karen brings decades of administrative and operations experience to the firm. She oversees firm operations and client relations — directing intake, coordinating case logistics, managing records and billing, and maintaining the systems and calendars that keep matters moving on schedule.
She is often the first person clients will speak with and remains your point of contact throughout. Clients notice it in the ordinary things: messages that get answered, records in order, and nothing waiting on someone to remember it.
Expert Witnesses
Some matters turn on questions a lawyer isn't qualified to answer — how a fire started, what a repair should have cost, what a physician's records actually show. The firm retains engineers, physicians, forensic accountants, and other specialists to evaluate those questions, and where a case goes that far, to testify.
Their analysis helps build the record a case is decided on. Expert fees are handled as set out in your written fee agreement, and no expert is retained without discussing it with you first.