John Hueston has been described by Chambers as “the best lawyer of his generation” and “a force of nature” with a “commanding reputation for his trial advocacy.” “One of the top trial attorneys in the country” (Chambers), Mr. Hueston has been recognized as a “U.S. General Commercial Litigator of the Year” (2025), a “Lawyer of the Decade” and twice as a “California Lawyer of the Year,” including for his recovery of $5.15 billion after trial.
A former lead prosecutor for the Enron trial of Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, he now represents Fortune 500 companies and governments in their most consequential matters. His work ranges from winning and defeating multibillion-dollar actions to terminating some of the nation’s most significant regulatory and criminal investigations and cases. Mr. Hueston is also a “lawyer’s lawyer,” sought for his counsel and litigation skills by some of the largest law firms and rainmakers in the U.S.
A Fellow of both the American College of Trial Lawyers and the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, Mr. Hueston has also been recognized as a Law360 “Trials MVP” and “Competition MVP,” a Chambers “Star” national trial lawyer, and a Daily Journal “Distinguished Counsel” – an elite group of lawyers who have been on the publication’s “Top 100” list at least 15 times. He has also repeatedly been named among Benchmark Litigation’s “Top 100 Trial Lawyers in America” and to its “Hall of Fame,” among many other accolades.
- On the eve of trial, Mr. Hueston secured a settlement exceeding $300 million for Match Group – the company behind Tinder and other highly popular dating apps. This closely watched lawsuit alleged Google engaged in anticompetitive practices to monopolize the distribution of mobile apps and processing of in-app purchases. Following the Match Group settlement, Mr. Hueston received an extraordinary invitation to join co-plaintiff Epic Games, creator of Fortnite, in its continued fight against Google's anticompetitive practices. After a month-long trial in which the jury deliberated just four hours, the firm helped secure a resounding trial victory for Epic on all counts. The verdict was a stunning defeat for Google, which operates the world’s largest Android app store. The Ninth Circuit affirmed the trial win.
- Obtained over $500 million in trial damages for Monster Energy in a pair of precedent-setting cases against rival beverage company Vital Pharmaceuticals (VPX), the third-largest energy drink manufacturer in the U.S. The trials included a $293 million false advertising, tortious interference and trade secrets theft verdict that is believed to be the largest Lanham Act award in history, and a case that is among the largest-ever U.S. trademark awards, which resulted in $175 million in damages, nearly $10 million in attorney’s fees and costs, and a 5% royalty on all future sales of VPX’s Bang Energy product (with over $1.5 billion in annual sales).
- Won a “landmark” opioid trial for Endo Pharmaceuticals in a $50 billion action. Three of the most populous counties in California and the City of Oakland brought suit against opioid manufacturers alleging false advertising, unfair competition and public nuisance. The win was hailed in the American Lawyer as “giv[ing] drug companies their first major victory in the litigation brought by cities and counties across the country over the opioid crisis.”
- Successfully defended Amazon.com and three Amazon executives against a historic FTC lawsuit targeting its Prime membership. The FTC alleged that Amazon used deceptive user-interface designs known as “dark patterns” to trick consumers into enrolling in automatically renewing Prime subscriptions and that Amazon knowingly complicated the cancellation process for Prime subscribers. Described as “a win for Amazon,” the case settled after three days of trial with no admissions of liability.
- Among many other high-profile victories, Mr. Hueston secured dual summary judgment wins for AbbVie in the Allergan textured breast implant litigation, won the dismissal of a first-of-its-kind antitrust lawsuit brought by the Michigan Attorney General against ExxonMobil and other major oil companies, and obtained a complete defense victory for a leading major gaming company in a strategically important antitrust suit. He also prevailed at the California Court of Appeal for McDonald’s USA, convincing the court to unanimously affirm the dismissal of a $100 million fraud suit brought by Byron Allen over ad spend on black-owned media through a motion under California’s “anti-SLAPP” statute, and he secured the dismissal of a high-profile conspiracy suit against Kirkland & Ellis and other defendants related to the highly publicized scandal involving former Southern District of Texas Bankruptcy Judge David Jones and his undisclosed relationship with a Jackson Walker partner.
- Arbitration
- Class action
- Commercial disputes
- Competition/antitrust
- Environmental
- Government and Regulatory
- Intellectual Property
- Product liability and recall
- Securities
- White collar crime
- Trials
- Accounting
- Consumer goods and services
- Energy
- Financial services
- Food and beverage
- Gaming
- Healthcare
- Pharmaceutical and life sciences
- Technology and telecommunications
- Utilities
- Yale Law School (JD)
- Dartmouth College (BA) magna cum laude
- Chair, Board of Visitors, University of California, Irvine School of Law
- Chair, Central District of California Judicial Evaluation Commission
- Member, Federal Criminal Procedure Committee and California-Southern State Member Selection Committee, American College of Trial Lawyers
- Board member, Equal Justice Works
- Board member, California Indian Legal Services
- Board member, The Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr. Institute
- President, Board of Directors, Trial Impact Project
- California
- New York