John C. Manly

For more than two decades, survivors of sexual abuse within schools, churches, and sports organizations have come to John Manly in Irvine, California. His cases have pursued the organizations responsible for hiring, supervising, and retaining the people who abused them.

Manly has publicly disclosed his own experience of abuse. Before asking a client to describe what happened, he makes sure they are receiving care and ready to give their account.

His cases pursue documents and testimony about the officials responsible for an abuser: what they knew, when they learned it, and how they responded. In the church cases, that meant deposing bishops; in the school cases, it meant examining the decisions of administrators who hired and supervised employees.

A Thousand Cases Against the Church

Manly built his early practice on clergy-abuse litigation in California. Under his leadership, Manly, Stewart & Finaldi litigated more than one thousand cases on behalf of Catholic clergy abuse survivors, including claims resolved in the $660 million global settlement with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles — 508 claims in the largest church resolution of its era.

His civil cases against Oliver O'Grady and the church officials who protected him were featured in the Oscar-nominated 2006 documentary "Deliver Us From Evil." Depositions required bishops to answer under oath about what they knew and how the church responded to abuse allegations.

C.A. v. William S. Hart: Opening the Schoolhouse Door

In 2012 Manly represented a student in the California Supreme Court on a question of school-district liability: could a district be held responsible when its administrators negligently hired, retained, or supervised an employee who sexually abused a child?

In C.A. v. William S. Hart Union High School District, the Supreme Court held that the student's theory was legally viable. School personnel owe students a protective duty of ordinary care. A district can be vicariously liable when supervisory employees breach that duty by negligently exposing a student to a foreseeable danger of molestation, causing injury, and no immunity applies.

The ruling concerned the negligence of the employees responsible for hiring, retention, and supervision. Their knowledge, authority to intervene, and response to warnings could establish the district's responsibility. Manly's firm went on to secure tens of millions in settlements for students abused in the Torrance, Los Angeles, and Redlands school systems.

Nassar: $880 Million in Settlements

When gymnast Jamie Dantzscher came to Manly in 2016 with an account of what Olympic team doctor Larry Nassar had done to her under the guise of treatment, he took her case. Within two years he was lead counsel for hundreds of survivors, including Olympic medalists.

The Michigan State University settlement he led, announced in May 2018, committed $500 million: $425 million for the 332 survivors then bringing claims and a $75 million reserve for future claimants. Michigan State funded the agreement through a settlement fund and a separate litigation reserve. An independent judge worked with survivors to determine individual payments.

In December 2021, a $380 million settlement with USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee brought the combined university and sports-organization settlements to $880 million. Manly also pursued accountability for the FBI's response. He identified a 421-day period in which the FBI and gymnastics officials knew of reports against Nassar and failed to stop him. In 2024 the Justice Department agreed to pay $138.7 million to survivors to resolve claims over the FBI's failure to investigate adequately.

The Netflix documentary "Athlete A" chronicled the Nassar scandal and featured Manly and his clients.

USC: $852 Million for 710 Former Patients

At the University of Southern California — Manly's own alma mater — campus gynecologist George Tyndall had examined generations of young women. In March 2021, as lead counsel for 710 former patients, Manly concluded an $852 million settlement of their state-court claims. No prior sexual-abuse settlement had reached that amount.

The claims process evaluated the 710 former patients individually, accounting for differences in their examinations, injuries, and the years involved. As in the Michigan State settlement, a collective resolution preserved individual evaluation. Manly has also guided child sexual abuse survivors through more than twenty Chapter 11 proceedings nationwide, securing recoveries and policy changes.

The Work That Outlasts the Verdicts

Manly's settlements have included changes in training, reporting, supervision, and oversight intended to prevent further abuse.

The University of California, Irvine named him a Distinguished Fellow of Law & Psychology in 2018, and he teaches as an adjunct lecturer at the UCI School of Law. He earned his undergraduate degree from USC and his law degree from Pepperdine University School of Law in 1990, and is admitted in California, New York, Arizona, and Alaska, along with multiple federal courts.