John Scheerer

Partner

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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. He has also handled 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.

Most recently, Mr. Scheerer was successful in achieving the following results for clients:

• 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. 

Mr. Scheerer obtained his J.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, where he attended on a full merit scholarship and where he was elected to the Order of the Coif as well as received the Dean’s Award for the highest grade in Wills and Trusts. Mr. Scheerer also served on the UCLA Law Review as Associate Editor. He received his B.A. degree from UCLA, summa cum laude. Mr. Scheerer currently serves as Member at Large for the Beverly Hills Estate Planning Council.

Prior to joining Sacks, Glazier, Franklin & Lodise, Mr. Scheerer was a Litigation Associate at Hueston Hennigan LLP, and previously at Irell and Manella LLP, practicing in complex commercial litigation and serving as counsel in high profile civil suits.