John Cline graduated magna cum laude from the University of Texas Law School. After graduation, he served as a law clerk to the Honorable Homer Thornberry of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. John began practice at Williams & Connolly in Washington, D.C., where he became a partner in 1994. Following a move to New Mexico, John became a shareholder at Freedman Boyd Daniels Hollander Goldberg & Cline in 1997. He joined Jones Day as a partner in San Francisco in 2004 and left in 2010 to form the Law Office of John D. Cline. John now lives in Washington State.