Position: Member

TEL: (818) 995-0800

FAX: (818) 995-3157

Email: Click Here

Website: www.horvitzlevy.com

Admitted: California, 1987

Law School: Harvard Law School

College: Brigham Young University

Birth Date and Place: 

Practice Areas: Civil Litigation, Appellate Practice, Insurance Defense

Additional Information: John Taylor joined the firm in 1993 and became a partner in 1997. He is a California State Bar Certified Appellate Specialist and is admitted to practice in the California and Utah state courts, the United States Supreme Court, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Mr. Taylor has been lead appellate counsel in dozens of appeals in a wide variety of areas (his name currently appears on over 25 published opinions and many more unpublished opinions), including matters involving the right of publicity, the Unfair Competition Law (UCL), breach of contract, insurance coverage, employment discrimination, CERCLA preemption, personal injury, California’s “lemon law,” and trusts and estates.

Mr. Taylor has participated in numerous cases before the California Supreme Court, and in 2009 was lead attorney in obtaining a closely watched decision overturning a $15 million judgment against a coffee manufacturer for the unauthorized use of the plaintiff’s photograph on the label of its coffee jar. In addition, he has authored amicus curiae briefs in the California Supreme Court on issues such as the scope and application of Proposition 64’s amendments to the UCL; public policy issues arising out of subcontractor indemnity provisions in residential construction contracts; the constitutionality of Proposition 5, the Indian gaming initiative; and the validity of the Seaman's tort.

In 2007, Mr. Taylor was appointed by Chief Justice Ronald George to serve on the Judicial Council Appellate Advisory Committee of California, as one of the three private civil attorneys on the committee. In 2009, he was named to the Top 100 list of leading lawyers in California by the Los Angeles & San Francisco Daily Journal. He has also been listed as a Super Lawyer each year from 2006 through 2009, and as a “Best Lawyer” by The Best Lawyers in America from 2006 through 2010. In 1994, Mr. Taylor was honored as the “Outstanding Young Lawyer” of the year by the Los Angeles Chapter of the J. Reuben Clark Law Society, and currently serves as chapter chair.

Mr. Taylor received his Bachelor of Arts from Brigham Young University (summa cum laude) and his Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School (magna cum laude). Following law school, he held a judicial clerkship with the Hon. Patrick E. Higginbotham, U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit. Before joining the firm, Mr. Taylor was a litigation associate with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP.

Firm Members: David Ettinger

Firm Members: Julie Woods

Firm Members: Steven Fleischman

Firm Members: Stan Todd

Firm Members: Bradley Pauley

Firm Members: Eric Boostin