Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP
201 South Biscayne Blvd.
Suite 3200
Miami, FL 33131
John has been a partner with Shook Hardy & Bacon since June 2000 following 14 years of practice in a litigation boutique that, in part, bore his name, and 11 years of litigation work at another Miami law firm.
Over the years, John has been a commercial litigator (contract disputes, employment, antitrust and trademark), independent investigator (sexual harassment cases), environmental litigator (CERCLA, RCRA, Clean Water Act, NEPA, and toxic tort), environmental counselor (common counsel at major Superfund sites, and advisor on real estate, loan and merger, and acquisition questions involving environmental issues and assessments), and, for the past several years, a peacemaker and problem solver, serving as an arbitrator, mediator, facilitator or allocator in a variety of substantive contexts. He has served or is serving as a neutral in over 50 matters involving in the aggregate more than $400 million. Among these matters, John has served as a neutral in five large multi-party environmental cases, where he supervised all discovery, including personally conducting depositions/interviews of witnesses, and prepared findings and conclusions that served as the basis of settlement; and has conducted ad hoc arbitrations as well as arbitrations under CPR, AAA, and ICDR rules. Over a several year period, John also successfully facilitated the resolution of in excess of 2,000 claims against potentially responsible parties in connection with two used oil Superfund sites in Florida. In November 2003, John was appointed to serve as the special master to oversee the implementation and enforcement of the 1992 Consent Decree (S.D. Fla.) between the United States and the state of Florida relating to the multibillion-dollar restoration of the Florida Everglades, and was asked by Kenneth Feinberg to assist his office in mediating post-hurricane insurer disputes in Florida. John also consults with major corporations on the evaluation of legal strategy and litigation risk in a variety of substantive areas of law and on implementation of records management protocols in both a litigation and nonlitigation context.
John serves on the CPR Institute for Dispute Resolution’s Panel of Distinguished Neutrals and is an ECR practitioner on the roster of the U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution. He was a guest lecturer in the international commercial arbitration class at Yale Law School on alternatives to arbitration and the use of “what if” analyses in dispute resolution. He has also completed the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators’ Assessment Workshop and was a participant and speaker at the September 2007 European Users’ Symposium organized by the London Court of International Arbitration. In 2006, John completed the Florida Certified Mediator Training Program.
John is a fellow of the American College of Environmental Lawyers. He is also a member of the ABA Section of Litigation Council, the Section’s liaison member to the Federal Civil Rules Advisory Committee and former co-chair of the Section’s Environmental Litigation Committee; a member of the Association of Certified E-Discovery Specialists Advisory Board; a committee member of the Seventh Circuit Pilot Project on E-Discovery; and former chair (2009-2010) of the ABA National Institute on E-Discovery. In addition, he serves on the editorial board of Natural Resources & Environment published by the ABA Section of Environment, Energy and Resources. He is the author of A Database Analysis of the Superfund Allocation Case Law (2003), a digest of federal court opinions addressing allocation factors and outcomes. He is editor and a contributing author of the ABA monograph Ex Parte Contacts With Former Employees (Environmental Litigation Committee, October 2002). He also wrote “Ethical Issues in Environmental Dispute Resolution,” a chapter in the ABA publication Environmental Dispute Resolution, An Anthology of Practical Experience (July 2002). Among his other works is a terrorism-related article, “If Terror Reigns, Will Torts Follow?,” 9 Widener Law Symposium 485 (2003). John is also a contributing author to SHB’s E-Discovery Litigation Update.
John has been recognized by Best Lawyers in America every year since 2005. In 2013, Best Lawyers selected him as “Environmental Lawyer of the Year” in Miami. John currently serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Miami Law School (Environmental Litigation and Policy). On behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency, John also served as an evaluator of an EPA training program titled, “Ne;tiation Strategies for Achieving Environmental Justice.” John also served as a hearing officer (pro bono) for the Dade County School Board for 18 years.
1975 J.D., Yale University
1972 B.A., summa cum laude, University of Notre Dame (Phi Beta Kappa)
501 North Orlando Avenue
Suite 313-306
Winter Park, FL 32789
©2023 American College of Civil Trial Mediators
All Rights Reserved
Privacy Policy
Website by Zgraph Inc.
