Every day, John O’Grady guides people through some of their most challenging conversations. Death, terminal illness, messy family disputes, aging, trauma, money, grief—none of this is easy to talk about.
John knows because he has been there, too.
His mission as an estate lawyer is deeply personal. Shortly after John graduated from law school, his sister, her husband, and their infant son tested HIV-positive. John’s journey through the illness and loss of his loved ones was the most painful and transformative experience of his life.
It led him to leave a big law firm to form O’Grady Law Group. Since 1989, he has successfully steered hundreds of clients through inheritance, co-ownership, and business disputes. In those three decades, John’s unique understanding and empathy have helped those stuck on life’s rockiest terrain find resolutions with clarity and grace—and talk about what they want their legacy to be for the people and organizations they care about.
It takes compassion, persistence, and non-judgmental listening to break down the walls around the unspeakable. John is adept at encouraging people to open up communications and navigate together through seemingly insurmountable conflicts, especially those about family finances, power struggles, and elder care that can escalate over time and put essential relationships at risk. John asks the big questions—about loss, love, life, and death—to help clients avoid expensive, complicated court battles and reach the long-term agreements and priceless peace of mind that updated wills and trusts provide.
John helps his clients craft creative solutions to address their particular concerns. He leads a full-service estate planning practice that includes wills, trusts, trust management, mediation of disputes, probate, complex and sophisticated wealth management, and the development of multi-generational tax strategies.
John O’Grady earned his J.D. and LL.M. (Taxation) from Golden Gate University and a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley. In 2020, he received The Bar Association of San Francisco’s Crystal Award for Outstanding Services to Diversity Education Programs for his mentoring of new lawyers. John served as the 2012 chairman of the Estate Planning, Trust & Probate Section of the Bar Association of San Francisco. O’Grady Law Group’s clients include real estate investors, business owners, executives, corporate trustees, other attorneys, and homeowners.