Experienced Trial Lawyer

John Howley, Esq. is a trial and appellate lawyer with more than 30 years of experience.  As a partner in one of the largest law firms in the country, John represented multinational corporations, banks, and foreign governments in their most important lawsuits, arbitrations, and negotiations. 

Today, he uses that experience to provide executives, professionals, and business owners with the same high-quality legal representation.

​An Exceptional Track Record

John has a reputation for getting excellent results in difficult cases.  Among his noteworthy cases are:

• arguing in the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of the Governments of India and Mongolia
• representing the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland as amicus curiae in numerous cases involving UK nationals, including in the U.S. Supreme Court
• winning an $80 million settlement in a race discrimination class action against Sodexho Marriott
• winning a Trafficking Victims Protection Act class action on behalf of 200 nurses from the Philippines against the largest nursing home group in the country
• winning a labor arbitration that awarded New York City police officers higher compensation increases than firefighters for the first time in more than 100 years
• winning an injunction against the City of New York prohibiting police officers from discriminating against demonstrators based on the content of their speech
• overturning death sentences in Alabama, Ohio, and Virginia

Education and Training

​John graduated from the Northfield Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts and studied as a Rotary Exchange Student in the Philippines before earning a B.A. in Government and History from Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York.

After college, John was a registered lobbyist with the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities (cIcu) in Albany, New York.  He was put in charge of the Council of Governing Boards, which recruited and organized business leaders who served as trustees of 115 private colleges and universities to lobby Congress and the New York State Legislature to support higher education.  John worked closely with the Council's first Chairman, Bob Keeshan (a.k.a. Captain Kangaroo) and his successor, Peter Warren, the Chairman and CEO of Pepsico International.  

John left politics to earn a law degree, magna cum laude, from New York Law School, where he was Articles Editor of the Law Review and a member of the team that won the National Moot Court Competition.  During law school, he served as an intern to U.S. District Judge Kevin Thomas Duffy and as a research assistant to former U.S. Magistrate Judge, later U.S. District Judge, Shira A. Scheindlin.

Upon graduation from law school, John served as a law clerk to U.S. Circuit Judge Roger J. Miner on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Employment Experience

After his federal clerkship, John worked as a litigation associate at Kaye, Scholer, Fierman, Hays & Handler, which later merged to become Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer. 

After six years, he became a partner in the firm and Co-Chairman of its Business Development Committee.  Over the course of 20 years at the firm, John represented multinational corporations, banks, labor unions, and foreign governments in their most important antitrust, commercial, and labor and employment litigation.

In 2012, John formed The Howley Law Firm to provide the same high-quality legal representation to executives, professionals, and business owners.  He currently represents an electrical engineering company in a $50 million fraud and breach of contract lawsuit brought by Con Edison, a casino in an $85 million fraud and conversion lawsuit brought by the Central Bank of Bangladesh, and the Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York as its outside trial lawyer in labor and employment litigation.

Pro Bono and Volunteer Service

John’s commitment to making a difference extends to his pro bono and volunteer work.  He has represented more than a dozen death row inmates in habeas corpus challenges to their death sentences.  He has won all but one of those challenges, and he has convinced Governors to grant clemency twice.  He has also represented the Government of the United Kingdom as amicus curiae, including in the U.S. Supreme Court, to challenge death sentences imposed on UK nationals.

Commenting on his unusual success rate, The New York Law Journal wrote that “The best news a death row inmate can hear is that John Howley has agreed to take his case.”

Throughout his career, John has remained intimately involved with education policy.  He has served as Vice Chair of the Skidmore College Board of Trustees and Chair of its Strategic Planning Committee; as Vice Chair of the Northfield Mount Hermon School Board of Trustees and Chair of its Financial Policy Committee; as a Trustee of New York Law School; and as a Trustee of the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities.

John has also served as a Trustee of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.  He is a Director of the Philippine Disaster Relief Corporation, Chairman Emeritus of the Philippine American Chamber of Commerce, and a former Director of the American Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines.

Honors and Awards

John has received The Thurgood Marshall Award from the New York City Bar Association, The Gideon Champion of Justice Award from the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and The Medal for Excellence in Advocacy from the American College of Trial Lawyers.  He has been named one of New York's SuperLawyers.

Languages

John speaks English, Tagalog (Filipino), and French.

John Howley, Esq.
The Howley Law Firm P.C.
1345 6th Ave 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10105