John M. Pierce

John M. Pierce is a trial lawyer and Global Managing Partner of Pierce Bainbridge P.C. He was described by Benchmark Plaintiff Litigation 2012 as "one of the most esteemed jury trial lawyers" at the world's largest business litigation law firm, and The Legal 500 United States 2015 praised his "real trial presence." In 2008, he won two multi-million dollar jury verdicts within a span of two months, including the 67th highest jury verdict in the United States in 2008 as determined by the VerdictSearch Top 100 list, as well as a victory in a major film financing trial in Los Angeles featured in The Hollywood Reporter.


A graduate of Harvard Law School, where he received the honor of serving as an editor of the highly prestigious Harvard Law Review, John is often retained by major corporations and financial institutions in the most difficult, high-profile bet-the-company business disputes. He has successfully represented clients in complex disputes involving, among others, hedge funds, private equity, structured finance, real estate finance, financial fraud, insurance coverage, intellectual property, legal malpractice, false advertising, First Amendment claims, government contracts, and film financing.


John has played a managerial role in some of the most high-profile complex commercial litigations in recent U.S. history, including Apple vs. Samsung, TCW vs. Gundlach, and Allergan vs. Valeant. In the course of doing so, John has developed knowledge of best practices regarding the discovery, review and management of Electronically Stored Information and related litigation support technology and practices in a complex commercial litigation setting. He is also an experienced appellate advocate.


John has successfully handled contingent and alternative fee matters, often working with third party litigation funders who assist individual and corporate clients to finance large, meritorious plaintiff-side claims. In addition, he has published an article in The Hedge Fund Journal on the emergence of third party litigation funding as an uncorrelated asset class for institutional investors.

On behalf of institutional clients and individuals suing as plaintiffs, John has obtained verdicts, pre-trial judgments and settlements amounting to more than $292 million. On behalf of corporate defendants, he has obtained verdicts, pre-trial judgments, and settlements successfully defending over a billion dollars in claims.

Prior to founding Pierce Bainbridge P.C., John was a partner in commercial litigation at the #1 ranked commercial litigation law firm in the United States, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP and was a partner in commercial litigation in the #1 ranked law firm overall in Southern California, Latham & Watkins LLP. He also served as co-Global Practice Area Leader for Litigation and Dispute Resolution at K&L; Gates LLP. He continues to serve as outside General Counsel for the SGVC family of technology venture capital funds.

Prior to law school, John was an M1A1 Abrams tank platoon leader in the U.S. Army’s 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood, Texas. He attended the Army’s Airborne School at Fort Benning, Georgia and participated in two rotations at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California.

In addition to his studies at Notre Dame and Harvard Law School, John has taken courses on cyber security at Stanford University as well as mergers and acquisitions at the University of Chicago's Booth Graduate School of Business.