At 7-feet and 6-foot-7 inches tall, cousins Lars and Vonn Christenson towered above their competition as a Valley-ranked doubles tennis team for Monache High School. More than a decade later they have returned to Porterville to form another partnership.
The cousins, both part of the 1997 Monache High School graduating class, recently returned to their hometown to practice law. At the start of this year, they joined Richard and James Christenson (their uncles and father) as partners of Christenson Law Firm, LLP.
After their high school graduation, Vonn and Lars both attended Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.
Lars shined at BYU. He played for the university’s volleyball team, which won the NCAA National Championship while Lars was on the team. He graduated from the credit-intensive Elementary Education program, and he was able to do so while working his way through college.
“I learned to work hard and to use my time wisely,” he says of the experience. Those skills served him well as he later studied law at BYU. Following his law school graduation, Lars moved to Porterville, where the late Robert Christenson trained him in social security and disability law where Lars has excelled.
Meanwhile, Vonn graduated from BYU magna cum laude in mathematics, after which he studied law at Harvard Law School and started his legal career practicing business litigation in Orange County.
He quickly developed expertise in a number of areas, including intellectual property, ERISA litigation, trade secrets, and products liability. His successes have been recognized by the Los Angeles magazine, which named him a “Rising Star” for the past three years.
However, returning to Porterville was always in the back of his mind. Says Vonn, “I had a wonderful childhood growing up in Porterville and I’ve always wanted to return.”
Following the death of his father, Robert Christenson, early last year, Vonn started to seriously consider joining the firm where his father worked, and the timing seemed right. “I’m excited to be here and to have the chance to give back to the community.”
Existing members of Christenson Law Firm, LLP share Vonn’s feelings. “It’s an exciting time for the law firm,” said James Christenson, a longtime partner at the firm. “Not only are we passing the torch to the next generation, but with Vonn’s litigation experience we are also expanding into new areas of law.”
Lars’ father, Richard Christenson, is the managing partner at Christenson Law Firm, LLP. “I’m thrilled that the next generation is coming back,” said Christenson, who started working at the firm with his father, Don Christenson in 1979. “It’s becoming a third generation family business. I’m happy that I can pass on to my son what my father passed on to me.”
Christenson Law Firm, LLP is located at 472 West Putnam. Its legal services include family law, estate planning, social security/disability, personal injury, business disputes, and civil litigation. Both Vonn and Lars are fluent in Spanish and English.
