John K. Villa is a partner at Williams & Connolly LLP in Washington, D.C. who specializes in corporate and financial services-related litigation (both civil and criminal). He has handled cases, enforcement actions and investigations involving banking crimes, securities fraud, insider trading, options backdating, money laundering, RICO, FCPA and OFAC violations. Many of his cases have involved the defense of corporate directors and officers. He was named to National Law Journal's list of "100 Most Influential Lawyers in America" as "the first lawyer that other attorneys and law firms turn to when caught up in the S&L and banking scandals." Chambers says "John Villa is the 'first name to come to mind for financial services litigation matters.'" The PLC Global Counsel's Handbook describes him as "an exceptional banking, financial and corporate governance litigator." American Lawyer has called him "perhaps the premier [legal] malpractice defense lawyer in the nation." The Financial Times reports, "John Villa, of Williams & Connolly in Washington, has a reputation for being the lawyer that law firms turn to when in a spot of bother."
He has authored the following three treatises: Banking Crimes: Fraud, Money Laundering and Embezzlement; Bank Directors' and Officers' and Lawyers' Civil Liabilities; and Corporate Counsel Guidelines. Mr. Villa is a professor at Georgetown University Law School teaching a course entitled "Counseling the Corporation in Crisis". He was a trial attorney (Honors Program) in the United States Department of Justice and a Special Assistant United States Attorney.