Resume

After more than four decades immersed in litigation, law, and the courts, Hon. John J. Kralik (Ret.) has dedicated his career to resolving disputes from every angle of the legal system. His path began at Hughes Hubbard & Reed, where he rose from associate to partner by the age of 31, handling major commercial litigation and supervising teams of associates. In 1993, he left private practice to join Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO), then a Fortune 500 company, where he became Chair of the Litigation Practice Group. At ARCO, he managed some of the company’s most significant matters, ranging from antitrust and securities disputes to environmental liabilities and insurance coverage battles. He also oversaw multi-million-dollar litigation budgets and personally advocated for corporate reforms before Congress.

In 2000, Judge Kralik founded his own firm, growing it from a solo practice into a five-lawyer office. From the outset, he positioned himself not just as a litigator, but as a resolver of disputes—making it clear to clients that his goal was to seek fair and practical resolutions, reserving trial only as a last resort. This philosophy set the tone for what would become a defining hallmark of his judicial career.

Appointed to the Los Angeles Superior Court in 2009, Judge Kralik served on the bench for 16 years, the vast majority of them in civil departments. He presided over hundreds of jury and bench trials, countless settlement conferences, and some of the state’s most complex disputes. His docket included asbestos litigation—where he tried approximately 20 cases to verdict—as well as class actions and intricate business and insurance matters. His rulings produced a long line of affirming published appellate opinions, including Carver v. Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. (2024) and Madani v. Rabinowitz (2020), among others. He also completed the National Judicial College Program on Civil Mediation, further deepening his focus on settlement and negotiation.

Throughout his career, Judge Kralik has demonstrated a particular strength in complex commercial disputes, insurance coverage matters, and business ownership conflicts. He is known for his willingness to bring together the many moving parts of complicated litigation and craft global solutions that give parties closure. His mediation style adapts fluidly—he begins in a facilitative mode, listening and encouraging dialogue, but is unafraid to pivot into evaluative techniques when entrenched positions require candid reality-testing. He has mediated roughly 200 cases to date, often employing tools such as “what if” scenarios, mini-trials, mediator’s proposals, and structured post-mediation follow-up.

Judge Kralik is the author of two books, A Simple Act of Gratitude, and Three Bodies by the River.

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

• Business & Contract
• Accounting Disputes
• Complex Litigation
• Insurance Coverage
• Lender Liability
• Real Estate
• First Amendment
• Religious Disputes

JUDICIAL EXPERIENCE

Judge, Los Angeles Superior Court

2009-2025

• Appointed in September 2009. Re-elected three times.
• Experience in Criminal (1 year) and Civil (15 years) Departments.
• Hundreds of Jury Trials, Court Trials, and Mandatory Settlement Conferences.
• Completed National Judicial College Program on Civil Mediation (2019).
• Site Judge, Burbank Courthouse.
• JES Instructor: Case Management, Jury Management, New Trial Motions, Defaults.

LEGAL PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Kralik & Jacobs; Kralik & Associates; Miller Tokuyama Kralik & Sur

2000-2009

• Civil Practice focused on resolving disputes through trial, mediation, and arbitration.

ARCO

1993-2000

• Chair, Litigation Practice Group (1997-2000): Supervising attorney for internal law firm’s litigation department. Directed strategy, cost-control, drafting and rewriting of briefs/pleadings for significant litigation, including antitrust, environmental, securities, insurance coverage, toxic torts, contract, and shareholder derivative actions.
• Senior Counsel, Major Litigation (1996-1997): Managed the company’s major litigation including environmental (cost recovery, natural resource damages), toxic torts, product liability, antitrust, insurance, and completed operations. Oversaw six attorneys, five paralegals, and multi-million-dollar budgets.
• Counsel, Litigation Services & Insurance Litigation (1994-1996): Managed Litigation Services Department, including 50 full-time staff and 40–100 contractors. Supervised budget and strategy of outside counsel and company litigation-support personnel in insurance, toxic tort, and discontinued operations litigation. Represented company before Congress and federal agencies on CERCLA reform.
• Senior Attorney (1993-1994): Provided litigation counsel on environmental and insurance matters.

Hughes Hubbard & Reed

1978-1993

• Partner, New York and Los Angeles (1988-1993): Five years of experience as a partner in commercial litigation, including as first and second chair in jury and non-jury trials and commercial arbitrations. In charge of associate workload.
• Associate (1979-1988): Nine years of litigation experience in all California state and federal courts and in commercial arbitrations sponsored by the American Arbitration Association. Substantive areas of law include insurance premium disputes, employment and business discrimination, First Amendment, RICO, copyright, fraud, products liability, real estate, trade secrets and related business torts.
• Summer Associate (1978)

Squire, Sanders & Dempsey

1977

• Summer Associate (1977)

EDUCATION

Juris Doctor, magna cum laude, University of Michigan Law School

1979

• Michigan Law Review: Senior Editor (1978-1979), Associate Editor (1977-1978), Note, 77 Mich. L. Rev. 1540 (1979)
• Law School Student Senate (1978-1979); Head Resident, Fletcher Hall (1978-1979); Resident Advisor, South Quadrangle (1977-1978)

A.B. with Distinction, University of Michigan

1975

• Honors English Program; Writer, Michigan Daily Editorial page

Candidate for Masters of Divinity, Regent University

2025

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

• Speaker, California Asbestos Litigation Conference, December 2016.
• Speaker, Complex Court Symposium, November 2016.
• Speaker, International Arbitration Seminar sponsored by PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Hughes Hubbard & Reed, October 2000.
• Speaker, Glasser LegalWorks Seminar: General Counsel’s Technology Workshop, May 1999.
• Taught MCLE Course on legal research on the Internet, August 1996.
• Faculty, 9th Annual Advanced Institute in Environmental Law, Georgetown University Law Center, November 1994.
• Faculty, Mealey's Settling the Long Tail Claim Conference, November 1994.
• Arbitrator, American Arbitration Association. Hearing officer in numerous simple and complex cases, 1985-2000.
• Judge Pro Tem, Los Angeles Municipal Court. Service in landlord/tenant, small claims and general trials departments, 1985-1990.

WRITING

• Author, A Simple Act of Gratitude, previously published as 365 Thank Yous (Hyperion 2011) New York Times Bestseller
• Author, Three Bodies by the River, a novel (Koehler Books, 2021)

VOLUNTEER EXPERIENCE

• Completed three marathons for Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, 2009-2014. Completed half-marathon for LLS, 2024.
• Completed four all-night walks for American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, 2013, 2015, 2020, 2024.
• Completed Avon’s First Breast Cancer 3-day Walk—60 miles from Santa Barbara to Los Angeles, October 1998.
• Completed Marine Corps Marathon to benefit AIDS Project Los Angeles, October 1999.
• Completed MS-150, 160-mile ride from Houston to Austin, April 1999.
• Completed California AIDS Ride 5—560 miles from San Francisco to Los Angeles, May 1998.
• South Pasadena-San Marino YMCA, Basketball Coach, children aged 8-14, League Commissioner, Fundraiser, 1993-1997.