John C. Taylor

John C. Taylor is a nationally recognized trial lawyer in California. The broad variety of cases he has tried during his career is matched by few attorneys, trying more than 135 cases to verdict, including: police shootings and civil rights, sexual abuse, serious personal injury, wrongful death, products liability, insurance bad faith, and employment.

Among his record-setting outcomes are:

• $57.5 million verdict in an insurance bad faith action arising from an aviation accident resulting in the death of three men. Santesson v. Beech Aircraft
• $35 million verdict on behalf of an adult woman who was raped by her adult, male track coach when she was a minor high school student at Pomona High School in the 1990s.
• $25 million verdict for a former student of Dos Pueblos High School in the Santa Barbara Unified School District who was sexually abused by an assistant coach.
• $25.3 million verdict against the Westerly School, a private school in Long Beach, on behalf of a client who was subjected to sexual abuse over the course of his four years there. Stephen W. v. Westerly School of Long Beach
• $18.6 million verdict for negligent entrustment of an automobilewhere a company president allowed his wife to drive a company-owned vehicle four days after she failed the DMV road exam and caused serious injury to a motorcyclist. Mallabo v. Wan Hai Lines (America)
• $14.4 million verdict in a negligence case where an improperly serviced asphalt truck caused a chain collision on the freeway. Two people died and one suffered severe brain damage. Pascua/White vs. Industrial Asphalt

John has been involved in numerous high-profile cases, including representing the mother of a woman who was killed by Phil Spector, as well as the family of Sherri Rasmussen who was beaten and shot by Los Angeles Police Department police officer Stephanie Lazarus. The case went unsolved for more than 20 years as the LAPD believed it was a botched burglary.

Practicing for nearly 50 years, John received the “Trial Lawyer of the Year” Award from the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles (CAALA) in 1988 and has been nominated for the award numerous times since then. In 1992, he was again honored by Verdictum Juris naming him the “Trial Lawyer of the Year”.

John was honored at the Hall of Fame dinner of the Association of Southern California Defense Counsel (ASCDC) as its prestigious 2024 Civil Advocate Award recipient. ASCDC is the foremost association for defense attorneys in Southern California. The Civil Advocate award is presented to the individual regardless of whether representing plaintiff or defendant, who has contributed to the profession through principled direction and preservation of the civil jury system.

He has been named to the list of Southern California Super Lawyers since its inception, as well as to its “Top 100 Lawyers” in Southern California list since 2007, and as one of the “Top 10 Lawyers” in 2011. He has also been included on the prestigious list of The Best Lawyers in America for several consecutive years and named to Lawdragon’s list of “500 Leading Lawyers in America”.

John holds the rank of "Diplomate" in the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA), a national association of experienced trial lawyers and judges. He has testified as an expert at trial on legal ethics, legal malpractice and insurance bad faith.

John has continued his participation and contribution to consumer rights as a sustaining member of CAALA, the American Association for Justice (AAJ) and Trial Lawyers for Public Justice (TLPJ). He has served on CAALA’s Board of Governors since 1985 becoming an Emeritus board member in 1997. He has also served as a member of the Board of Governors of Public Counsel, one of the largest public interest practices in the nation.

As a frequent speaker and contributor to seminars, John focuses on advancing the reputation of the legal community and the rights of injured consumers. He has spoken on ethics at Loyola University School of Law and on Trial Advocacy at Whittier School of Law. His views have found a forum both locally and nationally as a speaker to such groups as CAALA, the Consumer Attorneys of California (CAOC), the American Bar Association's Products Liability Division, ABOTA Inns of Court, and the Nevada and Orange County Trial Lawyer Associations.

John is a graduate of Ohio University and McGeorge School of Law at the University of the Pacific. He began his legal career clerking and trying cases for the Sacramento County Public Defenders' Office, and then worked as an insurance defense lawyer, becoming the youngest partner ever at his firm.

John left defense work and after several successful years as a solo practitioner, he became a founding partner in Greene, Broillet, Taylor & Wheeler. During his 12-year tenure at the firm, John tried and won a variety of complex and sophisticated matters as the firm became a nationally-recognized leader in plaintiffs' personal injury law. In 2002, John joined with David Ring to create Taylor & Ring, where he continues his successful trial practice.