John Rea has a diverse legal practice in federal and state courts, both at the trial and appellate level. He maintains an active litigation, governmental affairs, and business law practice, advising clients on a variety of matters, including in the areas of personal injury, residential and commercial real estate, civil litigation, corporations, and trusts and estates. John is the City Attorney for the City of Pell City, Alabama. He also represents and advises numerous other public entities, businesses, and individuals, including the St. Clair County Board of Education, the St. Clair County Health Care Authority, the Coosa Valley Water Supply District, Talladega College, and the Commercial Development Authority of the City of Lincoln, Alabama.
Prior to moving his practice to Pell City in 2010, John worked in the trial and appellate litigation teams at Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP in Birmingham, Alabama, where he litigated and advised on a wide variety of matters, including in the areas of complex commercial transactions, toxic torts, federal securities laws, water rights, products liability, commercial real estate, and white collar criminal defense.
In 2005, John graduated from the Yale Law School. At Yale, he was awarded the Clifford L. Porter Prize for the best student paper on taxation, and the Alabama Law Foundation’s Cabaniss, Johnston Scholarship.
After graduation, John clerked for Chief Justice Drayton Nabers, Jr. on the Supreme Court of Alabama.
Prior to law school, John graduated summa cum laude from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology and Philosophy, with a minor in Chemistry. While maintaining a 4.0 GPA, John was a four-year starter on the Blazers’ football team, starting 43 games as an offensive lineman. In 1997, John became the first – and remains the only – UAB football player to be selected first-team Division 1A Academic All-American. At UAB, John was a Rhodes Scholarship Finalist, and he possessed the highest grade-point average in his graduating class. In 2019, John was inducted into the St. Clair County Sports Hall of Fame.
Most importantly, John has been happily married to his wonderful wife, Sonja, for over 20 years. The couple have five beautiful children, four girls and one boy. John, Sonja, and their kids make their home in Pell City, where John graduated from high school in 1994.