John is a partner at Starnes Davis Florie. He joined the firm in 2002 after practicing for three years in Montgomery, Alabama. John was the second lawyer to join the Mobile office and is a former member of the firm’s Executive Committee. He has worked on a broad variety of litigation matters, including professional liability, complex commercial and business litigation, intellectual property and collegiate sports. His practice has a particular emphasis on healthcare and professional medical liability, where John has successfully tried numerous hospital, physician, and nursing home cases to verdict.
Professional Recognition
•Super Lawyer in Alabama by Mid-South Super Lawyers magazine.
•Listed in Best Lawyers in America for Medical Malpractice Law & Personal Injury Litigation.
•Rising Star for the State of Alabama in Alabama Super Lawyers, 2011.
•AV rating by Martindale-Hubbell at Peer Review Ratings .
•Named “Lawyer of the Year” for Malpractice Law-Defendants in the 2026 edition of Best Lawyers in America.
Highlights
•Obtained a defense verdict, in Mobile, Alabama, for an OB/GYN in a case alleging misrepresentation of colposcopy findings as a cancer resulting in an unnecessary hysterectomy.
•Secured a defense verdict for a reproductive endocrinologist in a wrongful death claim filed by a mother in connection with the loss of her unborn child.
•Obtained a dismissal without settlement of clients at the close of all evidence in a wrongful death case involving medication error that resulted in a verdict of $140 Million against co-defendants.
•Obtained judgment as a matter of law for surgeon after five days of trial in wrongful death claim involving allegations of failure to diagnose and treat a perforated duodenal ulcer.
•After nineteen days of trial, obtained judgment as a matter of law on behalf of an internist in a wrongful death case involving allegations of failure to diagnose a liver hematoma in an ICU patient.
•Obtained a jury verdict in favor of a defendant colon and rectal surgeon in a seven-day trial involving the alleged improper cessation of steroid therapy.
•Obtained a jury verdict in favor of an orthopedist in litigation stemming from the transection of the popliteal artery during arthroscopic procedure.
•Obtained jury verdict in favor of cardiologist in litigation stemming from sudden cardiac death.
•Represented the University of Alabama in Huntsville in an intellectual property dispute over PEGylation technology, resulting in a $25 million dollar settlement for the client.
•Obtained dismissal and appellate affirmance for an OB/GYN in a wrongful death action by arguing that the Plaintiff’s retained medical experts had established that fetal demise was earlier than demonstrated within the medical records, thereby making the claim untimely filed.
•Obtained a complete dismissal for distributor who marketed air purifiers in Brookstone stores in a potential class action dispute.
•Obtained jury verdict for emergency medicine physician in litigation stemming from the alleged failure to diagnose acute diverticulitis.
•Successfully defended an emergency physician in a wrongful death trial alleging failure to diagnosis a basilar artery stroke in the emergency department, and inappropriate discharge from the emergency department.
News & Insights
•SDF’s Axon, Butler, Ezelle & McCall Named 2026 “Best Lawyers of the Year”
•33 Starnes Attorneys Listed in Best Lawyers in America 2025
•30 Starnes Attorneys Listed in Best Lawyers in America 2024
•30 SDF ATTORNEYS LISTED IN BEST LAWYERS IN AMERICA 2023
•29 SDF ATTORNEYS LISTED IN BEST LAWYERS IN AMERICA 2022
•Wells & McCall Secure Order to Compel to Arbitration by the Alabama Supreme Court
•THIRTY-ONE SDF ATTORNEYS NAMED TO THE 2019 EDITION OF MID-SOUTH SUPER LAWYERS
•THIRTY-ONE SDF ATTORNEYS NAMED TO THE 2018 EDITION OF MID-SOUTH SUPER LAWYERS
•Twenty-Eight SDF Attorneys Named to the 2017 Edition of Mid-South Super Lawyers
•Twenty-Six SDF Attorneys Named to the 2016 Edition of Mid-South Super Lawyers
•Twenty-Six SDF Attorneys Named to 2015 Alabama Super Lawyers
•Starnes Davis Florie Attorneys Secure Defense Verdict for OB/GYN After Eight Days of Trial
•Starnes Davis Florie Attorneys Wright and McCall Secure Defense Verdict for Reproductive Endocrinologist
•Starnes Davis Florie Granted Favorable Ruling by The Alabama Supreme Court
•Thirty SDF Attorneys Named to Alabama Super Lawyers 2014
•Twenty-Six Starnes Davis Florie Attorneys Listed in Alabama Super Lawyers 2013
•Starnes Davis Florie Lawyers Secure Appellate Reversal & Rendering of Adverse Malpractice Verdict
•Florie & McCall Secured Dismissal in Two-Week Wrongful Death Trial in Baldwin County
•Starnes Davis Florie Attorneys Secure Judgment in Favor of Surgeon in Selma Wrongful Death Case
