John T. O’Connell

John O’Connell is a lawyer, Commercial Pilot (Single-Multi Engine Land and Sea with Instrument Rating) and an experienced scuba diver (certified advanced open water) who has been litigating general aviation cases, scuba diving, personal injury and complex product liability cases for the past thirty five years.  He has over 35 years of experience handling commercial aircraft, small plane and helicopter crash litigation.

John has been scuba diving since 1978 and started litigating SCUBA diving cases in 1991 when a newly married couple from Massachusetts went to Hawaii for their honeymoon and the new groom died while taking an introductory SCUBA experiential course. Since that time he has worked on numerous SCUBA diving and rebreather accident cases in Florida, Hawaii, Pennsylvania, California and New Hampshire. In 2016 he was lead counsel in a SCUBA diving death case in Hawai’i and ultimately recovered over 2.2 million dollars for his client. Most recently in 2017 he was trial counsel in another drowning death case brought when bad weather confronted snorkelers with 12 foot seas that settled for an undisclosed amount. John is available for consultation and referral of aviation, maritime and dive injury cases in Colorado, Hawaii, Florida and Massachusetts as well as other jurisdictions on a pro hac vice basis.

He is admitted to practice law in Colorado, Florida, Hawaii and Massachusetts and is also a member of the Federal Bar for the 1st (District of Massachusetts), 9th (Hawaii), 10th (Colorado), and 11th (S.D. Florida) Federal Circuit Courts.

In addition to multiple state and federal admissions he is also licensed as a patent attorney with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Mr. O’Connell started his career at the Boston law firm of Parker, Coulter, Daley and White where he got his start working on aviation, products, medical products, car accidents and personal injury cases. He founded his own law firm in Massachusetts in 1986, in Florida in 2004 and has now joined the Colorado law firm of Lee, Meyers and O’Connell, LLP as a founding partner. In addition to his undergraduate training at Salem State University, he was a chemistry major at Oregon State University, studied physics, chemistry, computer science at various colleges and universities, and has taken master’s level courses in computer systems design and analysis at Boston University. Mr. O’Connell now restricts his practice to the preparation and trial of personal injury cases.

He is also available as trial co-counsel for personal injury matters in Colorado, Hawaii, Florida and Massachusetts and can make pro hac vice arrangements nationwide.