John Peter Lee

John Peter Lee was a legal pioneer and iconic trial lawyer whose career in Nevada spanned six decades. Born on August 6, 1926, in San Francisco, he was a 1949 graduate of the University of Nevada, Reno, and earned his law degree from the University of San Francisco School of Law in 1953. He moved his family to Las Vegas in 1954, opening a law practice in a small office on Fremont Street and beginning a long and illustrious legal career working alongside prominent attorney G. William Coulthard, who later became his brother-in-law.

Over the course of his career, John became the second longest continuously practicing litigator in Nevada. Specializing in complex litigation, he handled thousands of cases, ranging from the MGM Fire lawsuit to airspace eminent domain matters - one of which resulted in nearly the largest inverse condemnation settlement in Nevada history. He was associated with at least one hundred cases before the Nevada Supreme Court.

John served as chairman of the Clark County Legal Aid & Defenders' Society and was a member of the Nevada State Board of Bar Examiners, the Board of Governors of the Nevada State Bar, and Master of the Bench of the American Inns of Court. A strong advocate for those less fortunate than himself, he mentored many young legal practitioners over his sixty-plus year career, some of whom went on to become judges on the state and federal benches as well as prominent attorneys in their own right. The legacy he left behind in the legal community of Nevada will be felt for generations to come.