John Gilligan is a smart, strategic trial lawyer. He is at ease in court and is very good with witnesses, judges and jurors. He's a very skilled advocate who is able to communicate effectively to get his point across, and he prepares intently for everything he does. With forty-five years of trial experience, he has tried more than 70 cases to decision, the majority by jury verdict, in federal and state courts, the Ohio Court of Claims and to arbitration panels. John is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and the International Academy of Trial Lawyers. He has been recognized in
The Best Lawyers® in America as the
Lawyer of the Year 2022 in Bet the Company Litigation, Columbus, Ohio, and Ohio Super Lawyers - Top 50 Lawyers in Columbus and Top 100 Lawyers in Ohio. He is also ranked by
Chambers USA for his practice in general commercial litigation.
His representative trials and arbitrations have spanned a variety of business disputes. He played a lead role on the trial teams on matters, such as:
In this first case against a residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) trustee to go to trial, won a complete defense verdict after three weeks of testimony defending BNY Mellon (with co-counsel from Mayer, Brown and Keating, Muething) against claims in excess of $100 million by Western & Southern for losses suffered from investments in RMBS. The defense team showed the trial judge that the Plaintiffs’ case was full of evidentiary holes, that the damage calculations based on flawed sampling made no sense, and that there was no evidence that the RMBS trustee was even remotely the cause of any of the damages claimed.
For more information, see this article. 2017 WL 3392856 (Ohio Com.Pl.)
- Counsel for regional bank in recovering multi-million dollar loss of funds stolen by bank officer during his tenure. Although the stolen funds had been spent, we were able to recover, without any discovery expense, almost the full amount of loss from relatives and other third parties who had received benefit of the stolen funds.
- Resolved with putative class representatives a purported class claim against private professional college based on alleged lack of promised accreditation.
- Successfully defended trademark infringement cases filed by Scotts, most recent dismissed after Motion to Dismiss filed. For more info, see this Law360 article.
- Represented bankruptcy trustee in claim to recover losses suffered as result of alleged misfeasance of former officers and key investors and board members. Negotiated the recovery of more than $4.5 Million without any discovery expense.
- Participated on trial teams to obtain dismissal of putative class action claims in health care payment and reimbursement disputes, as well as in consumer fraud claims arising from the foreclosure of securitized residential mortgage loans.
John devotes a substantial amount of time to pro bono work, both nationally and in Ohio. He served as Co-Chair of the Access to Justice and Legal Services Committee of the American College of Trial Lawyers, and as Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Legal Aid Society of Columbus, Chair of the Ohio State Bar Association Access to Justice Committee, and 2017 Recipient of the Ohio Legal Assistance Foundation's President's Award for his pro bono work.
John and his wife, Megan (retired English teacher at Upper Arlington High School), have two sons, Dan (Dana) and Joe (Stephanie), and stay fit trying to keep up with their grandchildren, Allie Lu, Tommy, Sophia Megan (mini Megan) and Claire.