John Phillips

About

John M. Phillips practices law and runs a newsroom — an unusual combination that informs how he thinks about both. He is the founding partner of Phillips, Hunt & Walker, a multi-state plaintiffs' and criminal defense firm headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, and is Board Certified in Civil Trial Law by the Florida Bar (2013), a credential held by fewer than 1% of Florida attorneys. Phillips is admitted to practice in eight states, before the United States Supreme Court, and in nine federal district and circuit courts. His trial record includes verdicts up to $495 million in catastrophic injury, civil rights, and wrongful death matters. He has been recognized on the Forbes Top 200 Lawyers list (2024) and as a Forbes Best-In-State Lawyer (2025), among more than 20 national and state honors. He personally handles the firm's criminal defense docket and serves as a national legal commentator on Court TV and other networks, analyzing high-profile criminal and civil rights trials. He also owns Folio Weekly, Jacksonville's longest-running independent news publication, founded in 1987. Operating both a courtroom practice and an editorial newsroom has given him a working perspective on the issues most lawyers only theorize about: First Amendment defenses, defamation exposure, anti-SLAPP statutes, public-records access, source protection, and the operational realities of how legal stories actually get reported. Available to comment on: personal injury litigation, catastrophic injury, wrongful death, civil rights, police misconduct, criminal defense, high-profile trial strategy, jury verdicts and damages, constitutional law, First Amendment and press freedom, defamation, anti-SLAPP, media law, Florida law.