John Pierce is a senior litigation partner in the firm’s San Francisco office. He is an AV-rated trial lawyer, admitted to practice in California and Washington, D.C., with more than 30 years of litigation and trial experience.
Mr. Pierce’s litigation and trial experience includes a wide variation of complex national cases for insurance and non-insurance clients. His broad range of experience includes defense of corporations and their officers and directors in cases involving complex financial claims; professional liability matters; prosecution of commercial misappropriation and fraud cases; anti-SLAPP suit matters; attorney fee disputes; insurance coverage matters; mass tort litigation and construction contract disputes.
Mr. Pierce is also a nationally recognized author and expert witness in the areas of legal fee disputes, fee and cost allocation, legal ethics, and issues related to legal and ethical responsibilities of lawyers that arise from the tripartite relationship between insurers, insureds and defense counsel. He has argued related issues before state Supreme Courts in numerous jurisdictions throughout the country. He is a co-author of Defending the Insured (2004-2008), a legal textbook published by Aspen Publishers.
He has also served as a consultant and expert in the litigation management of cases involving a wide range of issues, including intellectual property disputes, mass tort litigation, breast implant litigation, commercial disputes, environmental coverage disputes, recording royalty disputes and mass asbestos litigation.
Mr. Pierce has served as a Member of California Legislature’s AB 2069 Committee, commissioned to study conflicts of interest and ethics within the tripartite relationship and to make recommendations to the California Legislature.
Mr. Pierce is also an active lacrosse player. He has played on collegiate, club, U.S. National and international teams in the years since he was co-captain of Notre Dame’s lacrosse team. In 2013, he was elected to the
Northern California Lacrosse Hall of Fameas a member of the Class of 2012.
Education
- University of California, Hastings College of the Law, J.D., 1976
- University of Notre Dame, B.A., 1970
Articles & Publications
- Defending the Insured (Aspen Publishers, Inc.) (2004, 2005, 2006, 2008)
- Millennium Crisis: Casualties on Both Sides in the Unholy War Between Insurers and the Defense Bar Over Issues of Staff Counsel, Legal Audits and Billing Guidelines, Mealey’s Attorney Fees Conference (Mar. 2000)
- Ethics or Economics?: The Ethics of Insurer-Imposed Billing Guidelines and the Propriety of Permitting Billing Statements to be Received by Third-Party Auditors, Mealey’s Conference on Attorney Fees (Feb. 1999)
- A Practical Approach to Implementing Recovery Under Buss, Underwriter’s Report (Sept. 1997)
- Disclosure of Protected Communications and Documents to Legal Auditors, Journal Of Legal Auditing, Vol. 1 (Spring 1996)
- How to Use a Legal Audit Report, John S. Pierce and Robert B. Levy, Legal Audit Review, Vol. 2 (May 1994)
- Recent Developments in Attorney Fee Disputes, 7 U.S.F. Mar. L.J. 205 (Nov. 1994)
Notable Decisions and Reported Opinions
- Embassy of the Arab Republic of Egypt v. Lasheen, 603 F.3d 1166 (9th Cir. 2010)
- United Services Auto Assn. v. Goodman, 823 So.2d 128 (Fla. 2002)
- Paradigm Ins. Co. v. Langerman Law Offices, 24 P.3d 593 (Ariz. 2001)
- Pine Island Farmers Coop. v. Erstad & Reimer, P.A., 649 N.W.2d 444 (Minn. 2002)
- Baker v. Pacific Far East Lines, 451 F. Supp. 84 (N.D. Cal. 1978)
- Buna v. Pacific Far East Lines, 441 F. Supp. 1360 (N.D. Cal. 1977)
Professional Memberships
- The State Bar of California
- The Fellows of the American Bar Association
- American Bar Association Torts and Insurance Practice Committee
- American Bar Association International Law & Practice
- Proctor, Maritime Law Association of the United States
- Washington, D.C. Bar Association
- Association of Marine Underwriters
- San Francisco Bar Association
Contact Information:
Tags: Expert Guest Bio, Litigation attorney