John served as managing partner of the firm for 20 years, stepping down in 2021 as part of a partner-approved succession plan. During his tenure, the firm grew from 60 to nearly 300 attorneys, with some of the firm’s most strategic practice areas reaching national prominence. John’s work with lateral partner recruitment and integration involved overseeing 11 separate firm-to-firm combinations ranging in size from 15 to 60 attorneys, and including deals with Saperston & Day, Damon Morey, Menter Rudin, and Gilberti Stinziano, among other respected firms. During his tenure, he also recruited and integrated more than a dozen large group deals involving attorneys deciding to leave regional competitors and national firms to join Barclay Damon. Most recently, John led a team that successfully recruited a 20-attorney group from LeClairRyan, which enhanced the firm’s major market offices in New York City and Boston and established a new 12-lawyer office in New Haven, Connecticut. The lateral program’s success has come from an innovative onboarding system and personal commitment by senior leadership to attorney practice, client, and cultural integration, which John helped develop and oversee. This program has resulted in a unique track record of retention of lateral partners at Barclay Damon who expand their practices and ascend to leadership positions after joining the firm, as compared to recent statistics of 75 percent lateral deal failure experienced by most US law firms. All together, the transformative impact of the 20-year growth strategy has created a seamless and stable platform of high-performing offices in midsize and major market cities across the Northeastern United States and Toronto.
John now serves in the newly created position of chair, reporting to the managing partner and focusing on continued growth of the firm’s major market offices, managing some of the firm’s largest client relationships, and driving select, strategic initiatives appointed by the firm’s Management Committee.
In his legal practice, John capitalizes on his experience as a former Wall Street project finance lawyer and trial lawyer at a leading New York firm. He serves a large roster of corporate and individual clients in disputes involving white-collar and corporate fraud and complex commercial litigation matters in both state and federal court.