ABOUT ATTORNEY JOHN P. MCCURLEY

John P. McCurley is an appellate attorney handling writs and appeals in the practice areas of juvenile dependency, juvenile delinquency, criminal, family law, and civil.

John started practicing law in the San Francisco Bay Area and currently lives in San Diego County. He handles cases throughout California in state and federal courts.

California certified appellate law specialist

John P. McCurley is an appellate law specialist (certified by the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization). He was admitted to the California Bar in 2008 and certified as an appellate law specialist in 2016. He is one of less than 40 appellate law specialists in San Diego County.

Admitted to Practice in California and Federal Courts

John is admitted to practice in California state courts, the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the federal Northern District of California.

education

In 2005, John graduated from U.C. San Diego with a bachelor’s of science in engineering physics. John graduated from the University of San Francisco School of Law (USF) in 2008.

Work history

Law school and internships. As a law student, John worked with Prisoner Legal Services in San Francisco, and the Prison Law Office in San Rafael (now in Berkeley). John started representing indigent criminal defendants in court while participating in the USF Criminal Law Clinic. He subsequently interned with the San Francisco and Contra Costa County public defender’s offices.   

Private criminal defense. John practiced with private criminal defense firms in the San Francisco Bay Area for about four years. He focused on trial- and appeal-level writs, appeals, and motions in state and federal courts.

Juvenile dependency writs. In 2012, John moved to San Diego and started working with the Writ and Research Office of the Dependency Legal Group of San Diego (DLG). With DLG, John handled over 200 juvenile dependency writ cases in the Fourth District Court of Appeal, Division One.

Solo appellate practitioner. John has been a solo appellate practitioner since 2016, handling juvenile dependency, juvenile delinquency, criminal, and civil writs and appeals. He does court-appointed and privately-hired cases throughout the state in these practice areas.