John E. Phillips, Attorney and Counselor at Law

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John was born and raised in Michigan. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in pre-law from Michigan State University and his law degree at the University of Detroit, where he graduated near the top of his class. John earned the highest grade in  his classesin Property, Corporations and Constitutional Law. John also was an Associate Editor of his law school’s Law Review for two years. John interned with G. Mennen Williams, Chief Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court and State Senator Doug Ross.

John has been an attorney since 1984, and he has been licensed as an attorney in the State of Michigan and the State of Arizona. John began his legal career representing impoverished clients in Landlord/Tenant Court in the City of Detroit as a Law Student. This allowed John to try cases and negotiate settlements while still in law school. John quickly became a lead attorney training other students to try cases. John’s first licensed attorney position was with a general civil practice law firm representing clients in their civil and criminal legal matters. At this firm, he represented several large corporations including Mercedes Benz for North America, SCM Corporation, New York Life Insurance, and Aetna Insurance. This was a practice concentrated in litigation with trials involving millions of dollars.

Next, John worked at a firm representing auto union members in their consumer claims. Again John became a lead attorney not only trying his own cases, but training others. John developed document assembly software to automate the production of court documents. This software was used in twenty offices in the State of Michigan. John also lectured fellow attorneys at the firm in litigation techniques. At this firm, John was promoted to organize, open, and run a law office based in Detroit representing all General Motors Corporation hourly workers, nationally, in their claims before the Social Security Administration. John, and the attorneys that worked for him, handled 2,000 – 3,000 social security decisions a year in all parts of the continental United States. As a direct result of John’s ideas and supervision, a new quality of representation became available to General Motors workers and their families. This increase in quality was reflected in the fact that the firm which handled this work before John and his attorneys experienced a success rate at the hearing level of 50%. John’s office established a 90% success rate in their claims and maintained that rate for the five years he ran the office.

For many years John taught litigation and general legal classes to paralegal students at two colleges, in Michigan and here in Arizona. John has also presented many seminar concerning legal issues to civic groups and attorney organizations.  John also teaches business law classes at Yavapai College.

While John concentrates his practice in the area of Social Security Law and greatly enjoys representing disabled clients, he also maintains a thriving legal practice in the areas of Corporate and Commercial law, Real Estate law, Estate documents and Probate, Personal Injury, and general Civil Litigation. John also provides pro bono services to several churches, civic organizations and impoverished clients.

In 1994, John established his own firm in beautiful Prescott, Arizona. In 2010 John opened a second office in Flagstaff across from the courthouse.   John's goal is to provide quality legal services in a comfortable and friendly manner.

Personally, John enjoys spending time backpacking, fly-fishing, kayaking, and he also enjoys studying the history of Arizona.

Associations:

• National Organization of Social Security Claimant’s Representatives, past member Board of Directors
• Alpha-Sigma Nu Honor Society
• Prescott Downtown Partnership, incorporator
• Prescott Chamber of Commerce
• Arizona Trial Lawyers Association
• Michigan Bar Association (in abeyance)
• Arizona Bar Association
• Yavapai County Bar Association

Significant Cases

Social Security Appeal to Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

In this matter, John’s client’s doctor found that he was disabled. But Social Security’s doctors found just the opposite after seeing the claimant for just 10 minutes. The Social Security Administration Law Judge ruled against John’s client accepting the Social Security's doctors' opinions instead of the claimant’s own treating doctor. This was a mistake, but to correct the judge’s error John had to appeal to the Federal District Court in Phoenix, AZ and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. After John’s presentation at oral argument in San Francisco, the lower decisions were immediately reversed in John’s client’s favor and John’s client received the Social Security Insurance Benefits he had paid for.

Restaurant opened immediately after wrongful Town Closure

In this matter John’s client, a restaurateur in a small town in Arizona, came to John after the top floor of his restaurant was closed improperly by the town. The client was losing thousands of dollars each week and had spent tens of thousands of dollars with a Phoenix law firm with nothing to show for it. The large Phoenix law firm told the client there was nothing they could do. John’s first step was to file suit. Forty-five days later the matter went to trial and after seeing only one-half of John’s case, the Town settled and John’s client's restaurant was fully opened in less than twenty-four hours.