Empowering Justice: The Unstoppable Growth and Diverse Impact of Gomez Trial Attorneys
From a Visionary Founder to a National Force: Advocating for Rights, Diversity, and More Justice for More People
Growth—attorneys, team members, practice areas and offices—has most defined Gomez Trial Attorneys since its formation in 2005. “We have dramatically grown so we can help more people that need us. It’s really that simple,” says John Gomez, Founder and CEO of Gomez Trial Attorneys.
In the firm’s 17 years in operation, their attorneys have earned reputations as top lawyers in their practice areas with a record of more than $1 billion won for clients. Practice areas include car accidents, truck accidents, personal injury, sexual abuse and assault, employment law and mass torts. That list is growing.
More Help for More People and Even Bigger Dreams for the Future
Gomez graduated magna cum laude from the University of San Diego and then attended Yale Law School, graduating in 1993. He clerked for a Federal Judge before working for Latham & Watkins, where he represented Fortune 500 firms in complex litigation. He worked as a federal prosecutor and for a prominent plaintiff’s attorney before founding GTA in 2005.
Gomez built the firm trying cases. One of the firm’s written core values is “We Try Cases to Juries.” “For a very long time, we only focused on catastrophic personal injury cases. But we saw a need for the very highest level of trial representation for people injured in smaller injury cases too, typically auto accidents. Because the insurance companies know us and our trial reputation, we feel like we can get better results for those clients as well,” Gomez says.
The firm’s historical track record seems for Gomez to be just a jumping off point. He has dramatically expanded not only the practice areas of the firm, but also the number of offices and personnel. “We will continue to grow and in five or ten years down the road our goal is to be the most active trial firm in the country. That sounds ambitious, and it is, but we’re going to work hard to achieve that. I have the right team to make it happen,” Gomez says.
In addition to expanding their representation in car/truck accidents, he has also expanded the firm’s involvement in employment law. GTA now represents employees who suffered wrongful employment conduct, including wrongful termination, sexual harassment, and discrimination. The firm handles cases on an individual and on a class-wide basis.
Finally, Gomez and his firm have become significantly more active in mass torts—representing thousands of consumers in cases involving defective drugs, medical devices, and other wrongful conduct that affects large numbers of people, including cases involving institutional sexual abuse. For example, Gomez Trial Attorneys is currently handling thousands of “hair-relaxer” cases. These are cases against companies that manufacture and sell products that straighten hair. Recent studies show a link to cancer. The firm also represents hundreds of former Marines and their families who suffered contamination through exposure to water at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
More Locations and More People for More Service
Gomez Trial Attorneys currently has 26 lawyers and close to 100 employees. New offices have opened in Solana Beach, El Centro, Riverside, Temecula, Palm Springs, and the Tampa/Saint Petersburg and Pensacola areas of Florida.
Taking His Firm National
Part of Gomez’s positive attitude comes from his ability to select the right people for the right job.
He mentions trial lawyer Elizabeth Zwibel as an example, who is now Managing Partner and Lead Trial Lawyer for Gomez Trial Attorney’s Florida operations. She currently handles cases in Florida, Washington D.C., and Virginia.
“Liz has 33 years of experience and has put together a great team in Florida. I thought she and her team would provide a great addition to our national trial capabilities. The decision was really lawyer-driven. She’s a great lawyer and a great human being. I wanted her as part of our team, so with that coverage we can handle any case anywhere,” Gomez says.
Emilia (Mila) Arutunian, a Partner in the firm, is the team leader of the firm’s employment and labor team. Partner Josh Harris heads up the mass tort practice and Partner Allison Worden is the Director of Litigation. Partner John Greer has been critical to the growth of the firm’s auto accident practice.
Gomez says, “I’ve surrounded myself with a great leadership team which allows me to focus on the things I enjoy, which is trying cases and being out in the community.”
San Diego Remains Home Base
While the vision is national, GTA and Gomez still consider San Diego home base. The firm’s brand new 35,000-square-foot headquarters is located in downtown San Diego and features a state-of-the art courtroom and presentation space, podcast and production studios and a modern and functional workspace that feels more like a Google campus than a law firm. Another recent change is that Gomez now advertises the firm’s services on television. “Advertising is just a way for us to reach more people who need help. And our advertising sets us apart from our competitors. Just like our trial results.” Gomez says.
A Commitment to Both Diversity and the Future
Gomez is particularly proud of the firm’s gender and ethnic diversity. GTA’s leadership, attorneys and team are all predominantly female, ranking the firm among California’s leaders in gender diversity among competitors. Women and allies in the firm have also formed and run “Women Leaders of GTA,” which is a GTA group committed to the advancement of women in law and beyond. The group regularly hosts educational and other events both in conjunction with other community groups and for GTA’s internal team also.
Diversity goes beyond gender at GTA. As Gomez states it, “I’m a proud Latino and we have the largest Latino founded plaintiff’s law firm in the country. I’ve intentionally recruited Latino lawyers and staff that are able to provide the highest level of legal services to our Latino clients in both their native language and with cultural sensitivity.” Gomez adds, “We really want to be the go-to legal source for that community.”
John’s next big project: Civil rights. Gomez says, “I want to do big impact civil rights cases in which institutional practices or policies disproportionally affect communities of color, and particularly, Latino and Hispanic people. I am working hard to build a team that can help me do just that.”
Trial Work Remains at the Core
Throughout its history, GTA has been known as a go-to trial firm. Gomez, for his part, has won an unprecedented 12 separate “Outstanding Trial Lawyer” awards and has obtained six verdicts of more than one million dollars in which the defendants offered absolutely nothing to settle prior to trial. He is one of very few lawyers nationally that has tried mass tort bellwether, class action and injury cases to verdict. Among his notable results have been an $8.3 million verdict in the nation’s first DePuy ASR hip case, a $16.2 million verdict against El Pollo Loco, a $10.8 million verdict against Pizza Hut and a $7.5 million verdict against Starbucks.
The firm’s busy trial practice continues. Earlier this year, for example, Gomez obtained an $8.4 million dollar verdict in a zero-offer “trip and fall” case. He and other attorneys at the firm will try a large number of additional cases to verdict this year in San Diego, Riverside and San Bernardino Counties.
Expanding the Family Too
The growth isn’t just limited to law. It’s a family affair too. Gomez has three children from a previous marriage. JD, 16, is an aspiring Olympic dressage competitor. Michael, 14, is a freshman at St. Augustine where he plays football and soccer. His twin Analise attends the prestigious Cate boarding school and plays volleyball, soccer, and surfs. Gomez is also now remarried, and he and his wife Leah have a 15-month-old baby girl named Jolie. Gomez says, “Family, for me, is everything. It’s why I work hard and do what I do every day. To have the joy and love of a baby in our home at this stage of my life is just an amazing blessing. We couldn’t be happier.”
Other than trying cases and being a proud husband and dad, Gomez is also very active in a number of charitable and community organizations. He is a member of the Rock Church and an active jiu jitsu practitioner and competitor.
GTA’s first core value is “We always do the right thing,” and Gomez works hard to live that core value in everything he does.
» Education
- J.D., Yale University Law School (1993)
- B.A, University of San Diego (1989)
» HONORS AND AWARDS
- Consumer Attorneys of San Diego Trial Lawyer
of the Year twice - Outstanding Trial Lawyer by the Consumer
Attorneys of San Diego 12 times - Lawyer of the Year by Lawyers USA
- Plaintiffs Products Liability Attorney of the Year and Class Action and Mass Tort Attorney of the Year by Best Lawyers in America
- Number 1 San Diego Attorney by Super
Lawyers peer polling - ABOTA Member
- Lawyers USA named him the national
Lawyer of the Year in 2010 - He has been named a Top 100 California Attorney overall by the Los Angeles Daily Journal
- San Diego Inn of Court President 2022-2023 year
- Community Youth Athletic Center, Board of Directors
- San Diego Brain Injury Foundation, Board of Directors
» LANGUAGE
- Gomez speaks, reads, and writes Spanish fluently
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