John K. Villa is a partner at Williams & Connolly who served on the firm’s Executive Committee from 2002 through 2017. John is Co-Chair of the firm’s Financial Services and Banking Practice Group. He focuses on corporate, securities and financial services-related litigation (both civil and criminal) and legal malpractice defense.
The Financial Times writes, “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.” The American Lawyer has called him “perhaps the premier [legal] malpractice defense lawyer in the nation.” The Washington Post reports “John Villa of . . . Williams & Connolly [is] the lawyer and firm that lawyers and law firms turn to when they’re in trouble,” and describes him as “a litigator who has gained national prominence with a somewhat rare specialty: defending top-flight law firms in trouble.” John was named to The 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.” In its list of “6 Firms to Have on Speed Dial if Malpractice Trouble Hits,” Law360 puts Williams & Connolly and John Villa first. In 2012-23, Chambers identified him in Tier 1 nationally for Financial Services Regulation: Banking (Enforcement and Investigations), among the leading lawyers nationally in Securities Litigation (2012-17) and Tier 1 in the District of Columbia for General Commercial Litigation and Securities Litigation (2012-18).
Though all cases vary and none is predictive, John’s lead trial experience includes a $1.6 billion confidential arbitration arising out of the largest Ponzi scheme in history. The result was a complete victory for the client. John is regularly recognized as one of the leading trial lawyers in the nation. He was also named “Litigator of the Week” 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 has described his successful trial victory in In the Matter of USAT … as “the longest trial arising from the savings and loan crisis” – 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.”
John has authored the following treatises: Banking Crimes: Fraud, Money Laundering and Embezzlement (2 vol.) (Thompson), Bank Directors’ and Officers’ and Lawyers’ Civil Liabilities (Wolters Kluwer), and Corporate Counsel Guidelines (2 vol.), (co-published by Thompson and Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC)).
Updated Sep 2023
