John Townsend Rich

John Townsend Rich, a Goodwin retired partner, practiced primarily in the areas of professional responsibility and governmental relations (including compliance with the federal Lobbying Disclosure Act). He wrote numerous appellate briefs in federal and state courts and in the Supreme Court, including numerous Supreme Court and court of appeals amicus briefs on issues related to civil commitment, discrimination and treatment of the disabled on behalf of various groups. He counseled U.S. corporations with operations abroad about suits under the Alien Tort Statute and potential liability under treaties and customary international law and advised on antitrust issues.

As a former member of Goodwin’s Ethics Advisory Committee, Mr. Rich advised Goodwin colleagues and other firms concerning their obligations under the rules of professional conduct, conflict of interest statutes, unauthorized practice rules, and laws governing the conduct of lobbyists.

Mr. Rich served as secretary of the D.C. Bar and on the steering committees of the Sections on D.C. Affairs and on Courts, Lawyers, and the Administration of Justice. He served on the D.C. Bar Rules of Professional Conduct Review Committee from 2011 through 2016 and chaired the committee in his last year. He served as a member of the D.C. Bar Pro Bono Committee from 2014 to 2020. He was a member of the board of directors of the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs from 2000 to 2009 and a trustee from 2009 to 2013. He works as a volunteer at the D.C. Bar Pro Bono Center’s Landlord Tenant Resource Center. He is a member of the American Bar Association (including the sections on Antitrust, International Law, and Litigation; the American Society of International Law; the ABA Center on Professional Responsibility; and the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers.

Mr. Rich was a partner at Shea & Gardner prior to its combination with Goodwin in 2004. He retired as a partner at Goodwin in 2013, but continued as counsel until the end of 2021. He has been a special master in an employment discrimination class action against a government agency, an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, and an associate independent counsel. After law school, Mr. Rich spent a year at University College, Oxford.

While in law school, Mr. Rich served as Editor-in-Chief of the Yale Law Journal.

Mr. Rich's publications include "When Talking Taxes, What Is Lobbying?" (with Collette C. Goodman), Legal Times (Mar. 21, 1994) at S25, reprinted as "Costly Contacts," The Recorder (Bay Area, California) (Mar. 28, 1994) at 9, and "The Laker Amicus Report: An Introduction" (with Stephen J. Pollak), 1 International Business & Trade Law Reporter 7 (No. 5, Nov. 1985) (accompanying publication of the Report of Amicus Curiae in Laker Airways, Ltd. v. Pan American World Airways, Inc. , Nos. 82-3362, -0416, & -2719 (D.D.C. Feb. 28, 1984).