About John G.
John G. Harnishfeger earned his Juris Doctor from The Ohio Northern University Pettit College of Law in 1992. He completed his legal training at a time when trial practice was evolving rapidly. That early education set the course for a career spent largely in courtrooms rather than conference rooms.
His professional life has been shaped by the mid-Atlantic legal landscape. He is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia, Virginia and Maryland. Those admissions let him handle litigation on a regional scale and appear before courts across three jurisdictions.
Harnishfeger’s memberships reflect steady involvement in trial and plaintiff-side organizations. He belongs to the American Association for Justice and is part of its Birth Trauma Litigation Group. He is also a member of the District of Columbia Trial Lawyers Association, the Trial Lawyers Association of Metropolitan Washington, D.C., the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association, the Virginia State Bar and the Maryland State Bar Association. Those affiliations keep him plugged into changing law and trial tactics.
Colleagues describe him as someone who spends much of his professional energy preparing cases for trial. He has developed routines for jury work and for managing complex discovery, based on years of handling contested matters. His courtroom style leans toward direct examination and measured cross-examination. He prepares witness testimony in plain terms and seeks clarity in fact patterns that jurors can understand.
Outside the courtroom he has participated in continuing legal education and professional gatherings tied to his memberships. He has attended seminars on medical litigation and trial advocacy offered through bar and trial lawyer groups. That activity has kept him current on procedural developments in the District of Columbia, Virginia and Maryland.
He maintains an active practice in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area and continues to litigate matters that arise across his admitted jurisdictions. He currently concentrates his practice on trial litigation across the District of Columbia, Virginia and Maryland.
