John Scheerer

Practice Areas

Estate litigation

Trust litigation

Conservatorship litigation

Estate, probate and trust mediation

Estate, probate and trust appeals

Career

Hueston Hennigan LLP, Litigation Associate

Irell & Manella LLP, Litigation Associate

California Department of Justice, Office of the Attorney General, Summer Law Clerk at the Criminal Appeals, Writs, and Trials Section, Los Angeles, CA

Professional Memberships

Beverly Hills Estate Planning Council, Board Member, 2023 to Present

American Bar Association Real Property, Trust and Estate Law Section, Vice-Chair Professional Responsibility, 2024 to Present

Publications

No harm, but still foul: Boyajian and California’s failure to extend the harmless error doctrine to revocations – Published: Daily Journal

Resolving Contested Trusts and Estates-Related Fiduciary Matters Without Litigation – Published: Thomson Reuters Practical Law Trusts & Estates

A Succession of what? The legal significance of the “piece of paper” in estates – Published: Daily Journal

‘Dead Men Tell No Tales,’ but Their Attorney May Have To: Overlooked Exceptions to Privilege in California – Published: The Recorder,

Education

Awards

Industry Sector Expertise

John Scheerer focuses his practice exclusively on trusts, estates and conservatorship litigation. He has successfully handled a variety of matters before the Probate Department of the Superior Court as well as appeals in the California Court of Appeal resulting in multiple successful appellate decisions.

Mr. Scheerer represents beneficiaries, trustees, professional fiduciaries, and non-profit institutions such as national universities. He balances clever advocacy with an unbiased and realistic assessment of each of his client’s cases in order to provide the most cost-effective favorable outcome.

Representative examples of Mr. Scheerer’s practice include prosecuting and defending will and trust contests, defending creditor’s claims in decedents’ trusts or estates, defending conservatorship proceedings, and prosecuting and defending breach of fiduciary duty and surcharge claims against trustees.

Work Highlights

- Successfully defended a multibillion-dollar claim against the Barron Hilton Trust.

- Obtained terminating sanctions in addition to demurrers sustained without leave to amend against a disgruntled relative of his client, a trustee of a trust holding substantial assets.

- Obtained a dismissal in subsequent related conservatorship litigation.

- Obtained an affirmance in favor of his clients, both trustee and beneficiaries of a trust, after an extensive appellate process, which included Mr. Scheerer’s oral advocacy in the California Court of Appeal.

At his previous firm, Mr. Scheerer was part of a team that served as trial counsel to Sumner Redstone, controlling shareholder of Viacom Inc. and CBS Corp., securing complete dismissal of the lawsuit after the first day of trial.