John C. Hueston

John Hueston was preparing for his very first jury trial as a federal prosecutor when disaster struck during what should have been routine testimony. The case involved an armed bank robbery in Torrance, and Hueston's critical evidence was a handwritten list found in the getaway driver's glove compartment -- what prosecutors called the "pregame warmup list," detailing preparations for the heist.

The detective had insisted on staying for the entire trial despite needing only 20 minutes of testimony. They'd rehearsed his testimony multiple times: when you opened the glove compartment, what did you find? The incriminating list proving premeditation. But when the moment arrived, the detective froze. "There was a long pause. I saw beads of sweat breaking out on his forehead," Hueston recalled. "He said, 'I looked inside, but I don't remember.'"

Attempts to refresh the detective's recollection failed. He couldn't recall what the recovered list meant. "I was crushed. And I thought, my God, my very first trial is going to be a loss," Hueston said. Instead of panicking, he made the snap decision to pivot to circumstantial evidence, building a case around all the other ways the jury could conclude the defendant's presence wasn't coincidental. In his rebuttal argument, channeling David Letterman's popular format, he presented the "top 10 reasons why the defendant, you must conclude, was there purposefully." The jury convicted within an hour.

That moment of adaptation under pressure became a defining characteristic of Hueston's career, which has included prosecuting Enron executives Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling and building Hueston Hennigan LLP into a 90-attorney powerhouse representing Fortune 500 companies in their highest-stakes litigation.

His approach emphasizes engaging juries through multiple senses. During the Enron trial, he placed a single penny on the bar in front of jurors to emphasize how crucial beating earnings by just one penny per share was to the conspiracy. "I could see how they were riveted by that and pulled into the testimony," he said. He's had FBI agents pass recovered weapons to jurors and used black lights during expert testimony to make jurors feel they're participating in the discovery process.

In the Enron case, Hueston faced perhaps his most pressure-filled moment: cross-examining CEO Kenneth Lay with the Attorney General's office reminding him that "this is a very important cross. Please focus. We could lose the case." Lay's defense centered on claiming he never sold Enron stock unless forced to by margin calls. But Hueston had discovered Lay sometimes sold stock to fund luxury purchases, including tens of thousands of dollars for a wedding anniversary celebration on a boat aptly named "HV Amnesia."

The challenge was threading the needle between exposing Lay's contradictions without appearing to attack his wealth personally -- a lesson learned from the hung jury in the Tyco International case where prosecutors were criticized for seeming to pick on the company's CEO, Dennis Kozlowski. "I could sense after going through a few of the examples, the jurors kind of pushing away, becoming less engaged," Hueston said. He made a split-second decision to cut short the luxury spending examples and pivot to other impeachment topics. Lay was ultimately convicted on all counts.

Hueston's recent victories include overturning a $72 million jury verdict for Boeing in a trade secrets case, with the judge awarding Boeing $12 million on its counterclaim, and securing a $311 million false advertising trial judgment and permanent injunction against Vital Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

His advice to younger lawyers reflects lessons learned in high-pressure moments: focus on winning each day rather than becoming overwhelmed by a trial's magnitude, and find calm even in the most stressful circumstances. "Just remember, this is your time," he tells attorneys before important examinations. "Ignore objections that may come in opening. Do not feel rushed. Enjoy that time. Know that you own that time with those 12 people and pace yourself."