John J. Welsh

John J. Welsh

John Welsh is Burke, Williams & Sorensen’s Managing Partner and Chairperson of the Management Committee.  He has served in these positions since 1996 and is responsible for the firm’s management strategy and financial performance.  John is a regular presenter and commentator at continuing education law forums and law practice management conferences.

When not serving in the above roles, John provides corporate expertise to the firm’s private business and not-for-profit clients.  Specifically, John serves as corporate counsel to numerous companies and has negotiated and drafted all of the following documents: supply agreements, distribution agreements, joint venture agreements, franchise agreements, employee confidentiality agreements, leases, sale and purchase of assets and stock agreements, covenants not to compete, partnership agreements, articles of incorporation, bylaws, and SEC filings. Additionally, John has corporate litigation experience involving discovery, law and motion, and trial work involving each of the following causes of action: breach of contract, intentional interference with prospective economic advantage, fraud, trade secrets, negligence, and infliction of emotional distress.

John’s education law experience encompasses a wide variety of institutional and student-related legal issues including, but not limited to, due process rights in disciplinary and tenure matters, sexual harassment, minority-based admissions and scholarship programs, reasonable accommodations for disabled students, student waivers, inappropriate discipline of students by faculty, right to privacy and public records access, duty of care of institution and its employees, free speech and assembly rights, plagiarism, student assault and battery, revocation and withholding of diplomas, campus crime disclosure, drug testing, accreditation and certification, open meeting laws, and institutional liability for employee negligence.

  • Housing Authority of City of Glendale v. Advanced Development & Investment, Inc., et al., LASC Case No. 460044 (2011)

  • M.B.A., Finance, Indiana University, 1990
  • J.D., Albany Law School of Union University, 1988
  • B.B.A., Accounting, University of Notre Dame, 1984
  • State Bar of California
  • State Bar of New York
  • District of Columbia Bar (inactive)
  • Sorin Society
  • Jonathan Club