About John Francis Winters
John Francis Winters Jr. earned his undergraduate degree in history from Illinois State University in 1977 and later received his J.D. from The John Marshall Law School in 1991. Those two institutions bookend formative decades for Winters Jr., a lawyer who has spent his career in courts large and small. His academic record shows a return to legal study after an early professional start, and the timeline hints at steady engagement with the law over many years.
He is the founder of Winters Salzetta O Brien & Richardson, LLC, a firm he established in 1977. Over time he has appeared in state and federal venues. The list of jurisdictions where he is admitted is long and varied: the State of Illinois; the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois; the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh, Fifth and Ninth Circuits; the United States Federal Trial Bar; and the United States Supreme Court. Those admissions reflect a practice that has spanned trial work and appellate work.
Winters Jr. maintains memberships in several professional organizations. He holds current membership in the American Bar Association, the Chicago Bar Association and the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association. He is also listed as a member of groups identified as the Association of Trial Lawyers and the Society of Trial Lawyers. Those affiliations place him in circles where trial procedure, civil litigation strategy and appellate jurisprudence are frequent topics of discussion.
The arc of his career has combined firm leadership and courtroom advocacy. Founding a firm early in his working life set a managerial course as well as a legal one. Across decades he has balanced the responsibilities of running a practice with the demands of preparing cases for trial and appeal. The court admissions indicate work that reaches beyond a single jurisdiction, requiring familiarity with differing procedural rules and appellate standards.
Colleagues and clients see Winters Jr. as a lawyer whose work includes both trial litigation and appellate briefing. He has practiced in federal district courts and in multiple federal appellate circuits, and he is admitted to argue before the nation’s highest court. Those credentials point to a career spent largely inside courtrooms and legal filings rather than in purely transactional roles.
He continues to practice at Winters Salzetta O Brien & Richardson, LLC, handling matters across state and federal courts. His current practice concentrates on litigation in state and federal courts.
