John K. Villa is a partner at Williams & Connolly LLP in Washington, D.C. who concentrates his practice in corporate and financial services-related litigation (both civil and criminal) and legal malpractice defense. He was named to National Law Journal's list of "100 Most Influential Lawyers in America" as "the first lawyer that other attorneys and law firms turn to when caught up in the S&L and banking scandals." Chambers says "John Villa is the 'first name to come to mind for financial services litigation matters'" and Chambers Global has named him in the first tier of trial lawyers in the U.S. The PLC Global Counsel's Handbook describes him as "an exceptional banking, financial and corporate governance litigator." The American Lawyer has called him "perhaps the premier [legal] malpractice defense lawyer in the nation." The Washington Post says that "John Villa of . . . Williams & Connolly [is] the lawyer and firm that lawyers and law firms turn to when they're in trouble" and describes Villa as "a litigator who has gained national prominence with a somewhat rare specialty: defending top-flight law firms in trouble." The Financial Times has reported, "John Villa, of Williams & Connolly in Washington, has a reputation for being the lawyer that law firms turn to when in a spot of bother." PLC's Which Lawyer? gives him the highest ranking in Washington, D.C. for dispute resolution. Naming him "Litigator of the Week" on April 29, 2010 for a favorable Second Circuit decision, The American Lawyer writes "John Villa [has] made a career of getting law firms out of big trouble." The American Lawyer named him "Litigator in the Spotlight" in the June 2009 magazine:  "Lawyers' lawyer, John Villa of Williams & Connolly scored three big wins for law firm clients this spring." Mr. Villa has been named to the 2010 edition of The Best Lawyers in America^® in the specialties of Banking Law, Bet-the-Company Litigation, Commercial Litigation, Corporate Governance and Compliance Law, Criminal Defense: White-Collar and Securities Law.

The American Lawyer has described his successful trial victory in In the Matter of USAT (decided September 12, 2001) as "the longest trial arising from the savings and loan crisis of the late 1980's" - a "trial that stretched over 18 months" and resulted in a decision that "exonerated [his client] on all counts" "a crushing defeat for the federal agency that brought the case." He is the author of the following treatises: Banking Crimes: Fraud, Money Laundering and Embezzlement (2 vol.) (West), Bank Directors' and Officers' and Lawyers' Civil Liabilities (Aspen Publishing), and Corporate Counsel Guidelines (2 vol.) (1999) (West) and the American Corporate Counsel Association (ACCA). He has been retained as Claims Counsel to the Attorneys' Liability Assurance Society, Inc. (ALAS) -- the nation's largest insurer of large law firms. He is a member of the Advisory Board, Georgetown Law School Corporate Counsel Institute. Mr. Villa is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law School teaching a course entitled "Counseling the Corporation in Crisis." Mr. Villa was a trial attorney (Honors Program) in the United States Department of Justice and a special assistant United States Attorney in the United States Attorney's Office in the District of Columbia. He was a recipient of the Attorney General's Special Commendation Award for Outstanding Service. He is a graduate of Duke University and the University of Michigan Law School, where he was an editor of the Michigan Law Review. Other publications: 70 Mich. L. Rev. 171; 71 Mich. L. Rev. 372; 37 Cath. U. L. Rev. 489. Mr. Villa's biography appears in Who's Who in America and Who's Who in Hispanic America.

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