John F. Barg

John Barg is a founding partner of Barg Coffin Lewis & Trapp, LLP, and was formerly a senior partner in Landels Ripley & Diamond, LLP’s Environmental Department. John has had an active criminal and civil trial practice for more than 30 years, and has tried to verdict more than 100 civil and criminal cases, including many environmental cases. His environmental litigation experience includes toxic tort, cost recovery, Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, Superfund, and environmental insurance coverage cases, as well as non-environmental complex litigation in federal and state courts.

Before entering private practice in 1984, John spent ten years with the United States Department of Justice. He served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney and Chief of Civil Litigation in the United States Attorney’s Office in San Francisco, and as a trial attorney in the Criminal and Civil Divisions of the Justice Department in Washington, D.C.

In addition to his trial practice, John's professional experience and expertise include:

Co-authoring Environmental Litigation, Bancroft Whitney's California Civil Practice Guide on environmental law
Lecturing at Environmental Law Institute conferences
Serving the federal courts in providing arbitration, mediation, early neutral evaluation, and other forms of ADR to litigants in federal court
Representing White House, cabinet, and cabinet-level officers in constitutional and national security litigation

Honors

Designated by peer review to be one of the “Best Lawyers in America” in the category of environmental law
Named a "Super Lawyer" by San Francisco magazine in an annual survey of Northern California lawyers every year since the survey’s inception in 2004
Named one of the Bay Area’s top environmental lawyers by Bay Area Lawyer magazine
Listed in the International Bar Association’s Who’s Who Legal guide, as determined by independent research with clients and peers of those named

Education

Golden Gate University, J.D., cum laude, 1974
- Law Review
- Legal Writing and Research Instructor
San Jose State University, B.A., Political Science, cum laude, 1968

Military Service

Commissioned service in the United States Navy in Vietnam and Philippines
Retired Commander, United States Naval Reserve