John (born Seattle, Washington) joined Ryan, Swanson & Cleveland in 1966 following a one-year clerkship with Washington State Supreme Court Justice Robert Hunter and a two-year clerkship with U.S. District Court Judge George H. Boldt. John served as a Washington State Bar Association Bar Admissions Examiner for two years, has written law review articles, served as an expert witness in a fiduciary liability trial, and lectured and qualified as an expert ERISA witness.

Before John retired in 2009, he helped clients deal with issues that surface during the life of a business; such as proper structuring, contracts with others, financing and acquisitions. John also did probates and estate planning, from preparing simple wills to preparing sophisticated tax-savings vehicles such as a QRPT (Qualified Real Property Trust) and family limited partnerships. Some of his estate-planning clients were business owners whose principal asset were their business.