John K. Villa is a partner at Williams & Connolly LLP in Washington, D.C. who specializes in corporate and financial services-related litigation (both civil and criminal) as well as legal malpractice defense. Mr. Villa is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law School teaching a course entitled "Counseling the Corporation in Crisis". Mr. Villa was a trial attorney (Honors Program) in the United States Department of Justice from 1973 to 1977 and a special assistant United States Attorney in the United States Attorney's Office in the District of Columbia.

He is a graduate of Duke University and the University of Michigan Law School, where he was an editor of the Michigan Law Review. Other publications include 70 Mich. L. Rev. 171; 71 Mich. L. Rev. 372; 37 Cath. U. L. Rev. 489.

He was named to National Law Journal's list of "100 Most Influential Lawyers in America" as "… the first lawyer that other attorneys and law firms turn to when caught up in the S&L and banking scandals." The American Lawyer has called him "… perhaps the premier [legal] malpractice defense lawyer in the nation." The Washington Post says that "John Villa of... Williams & Connolly [is] the lawyer and firm that lawyers and law firms turn to when they're in trouble" (emphasis in original). The Washington Post also describes Villa as "a litigator who has gained national prominence with a somewhat rare specialty: defending top-flight law firms in trouble." The PLC Global Counsel's Handbook describes him as "an exceptional banking, financial and corporate governance litigator."

The American Lawyer has described his successful trial victory in In the Matter of USAT (decided September 12, 2001) as "the longest trial arising from the savings and loan crisis of the late 1980’s" - a "trial that stretched over 18 months" and resulted in decision that "exonerated [his client] on all counts" "a crushing defeat for the federal agency that brought the case." He has been retained as Claims Counsel to the Attorneys' Liability Assurance Society, Inc. (ALAS), the nation's largest insurer of large law firms. He is a member of the Advisory Board, Georgetown Law School Corporate Counsel Institute.

He was a recipient of the Attorney General's Special Commendation Award for Outstanding Service (1975). Mr. Villa's biography appears in Who's Who in America and Who's Who in Hispanic America.