Education
University of Maryland School of Law, 2008, JD, summa cum laude and Order of the Coif
Sam Allen Memorial Prize for Excellence in Scholarship and Leadership
Journal of Business & Technology Law, Executive Notes and Comments Editor
Johns Hopkins University, 2000, MA, Fiction, The Writing Seminars (full scholarship and teaching fellow)
Kenyon College, 1993, BA (Drama), cum laude
Clerkship
Hon. Louis H. Pollak, U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, 2008 – 2009
John T. Stinson, Jr.
John is a former Assistant United States Attorney with diverse litigation experience on behalf of the government and in private practice. Immediately before joining Stapleton Segal Cochran, John served as the Deputy Chief of the Civil Division of the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey. At the U.S. Attorney’s Office, John represented the United States, its agencies, and its employees in a variety of civil actions and appeals in federal courts, including complex tort, employment, regulatory, environmental, medical malpractice, disability, and civil rights matters. He also served as an officewide Ethics Advisor.
John received several awards from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including the Award for Superior Performance as an Assistant United States Attorney – Civil, the Award for Superior Performance by a Litigative Team, and the Hon. Susan Steele Award for Excellence in Civil Defensive Practice.
John began his legal career clerking for the Honorable Louis H. Pollak, United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, after which he spent five years handling a wide range of complex litigation matters at Hangley Aronchick Segal Pudlin & Schiller and four years at Hecksher, Teillon, Terrill & Sager, where his practice focused on fiduciary, nonprofit, and professional liability litigation.
Before law school, John worked for Teach for America and as an instructor and teaching fellow for fiction and poetry at Johns Hopkins University, where he earned a Masters in Writing. He draws on these experiences in his law practice to help him distill complex concepts into accessible terms for judges and juries and advance his clients’ goals.
John’s teaching and writing continue to this day, as he has lectured in trial advocacy for the Temple School of Law’s LLM program and served as a volunteer coordinator and judge for the Hunter Moot Court Competition at Rutgers Law School for several years, and he is a co-author of a chapter on trials in the New Jersey Federal Civil Procedure treatise.
John is an outdoor enthusiast who keeps honeybees with his family and enjoys biking, fishing, and scuba diving.
Awards & Recognitions
United States Attorney’s Office, D.N.J.: Award for Superior Performance as an Assistant United States Attorney – Civil (2024)
United States Attorney’s Office, D.N.J.: Award for Superior Performance by a Litigative Team (2024)
Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division: Commendation for results of an Americans with Disabilities Act Title III investigation (2024)
United States Attorney’s Office, D.N.J.: Hon. Susan Steele Award for Excellence in Civil Defensive Practice (2021)
Named a “Rising Star” by Pennsylvania Super Lawyers, 2014 – 2018
University of Maryland School of Law Sam Allen Memorial Prize for Excellence in Scholarship & Leadership
University of Maryland School of Law Journal of Business & Technology Law, Executive Notes & Comments Editor
Leadership & Community Involvement
Visiting Lecturer, LLM Trial Advocacy Program
Temple School of Law
2023 – 2026
Visiting Lecturer, Judicial Process
Rutgers University – Political Science Department
October 2022
Co-lecturer, Urban Law: Contemporary Legal Problems
University of Pennsylvania School of Law
2014 – 2018
Selected Publications
Co-author, Chapter 13: Trials, New Jersey Federal Civil Procedure, Elizabeth Sher & Kerri E. Chewning eds., ALM (2024 & 2025; 2026 forthcoming)
Digital-Age Record Retention Practices for Trusts, ESTATE PLANNING, Vol. 44 (April 2017)
Co-author (with Daniel Segal), Indicting “Invective” in the Internet Age: United States v. Cassidy, 80 BNA U.S. LAW WEEK 1232 (March 12, 2012) (with Daniel Segal)
Secret Indictments: How to Discourage Them, How to Make Them Fair, 2 Drexel Law Review. 104 (2009)
Representative Cases
Represented the United States in data breach claims brought against federally funded health clinics that serve low-income communities in New Jersey
Represented the United States in medical malpractice claims against federal agencies and federally funded health care clinics that serve low-income communities
Won a jury verdict in defending claims that a military branch discriminated against a civilian employee in terminating him
Won a bench judgment in a trial of claims that a federal agency discriminated against a civilian employee in declining to promote him
Investigated a “high stakes” standardized testing company and obtained a settlement reforming the methods for reviewing requests for testing accommodations based on disability
Won summary judgment, affirmed by the Third Circuit, in defending federal investigators from charges of malicious prosecution and falsification of evidence
Represented federal agencies in challenges to permits to construct wind power farms off the New Jersey coast
Defended federal agencies and a federal court regarding planning and implementation of COVID-19 management protocols
Defended federal agencies regarding policy decisions implementing the CARES Act
Represented a Philadelphia-area nursing degree program in litigation challenging scholarship award processes and methodology
Represented the estate of a deceased business owner in complex litigation involving family, business partners, and taxing authorities
Represented the children of a deceased business owner regarding insurance and property rights in light of the bankruptcy obligations of the businessman and his companies
Represented minor beneficiaries of a trust in litigation resulting in the removal of a trustee for gross negligence and bias
Advised an author on possible defamation liability regarding writings involving litigation over financial concerns and business interests
Represented a Pennsylvania charter school operator in a federal investigation regarding admissions practices
Represented a Pennsylvania pharmaceutical company in a contract dispute with a multi-national pharmaceutical corporation