John was the first recipient of the department’s prestigious Donald Bruce Johnson Scholarship (1982-83). After earning a BA in political science at Iowa in 1983 and a law degree from Michigan in 1986, he held a federal judicial clerkship in Iowa. Later he joined a mid-sized law firm in Minneapolis and in 1993 he and several colleagues started Greene Espel, PLLP.

John is an experienced advocate, author, and lecturer on constitutional law, land-use litigation, appellate practice, telecommunications law, defamation, and the law of lawyering. He also serves as an Adjunct Professor at William Mitchell College of Law, teaching Land Use Management.