John Martel is an American lawyer and novelist.

A former Air Force pilot, Martel graduated with a law degree from Boalt Hall, the law school of the University of California, Berkeley. He joined the San Francisco firm of Farella Braun & Martel in 1964. He has tried over a hundred trials, losing just four, and consulted for the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office on both the O.J. Simpson and Menendez trials. He successfully represented Robert Mondavi in the landmark case of Mondavi vs. Mondavi. He obtained the then-highest verdict in Virginia history in V.I.P. vs. SCM Corporation and successfully defended the Hearst Corporation in a three month federal jury case, Pacific Sun vs. The Chronicle, the Examiner, et al. He is a former Regent of the American College of Trial Lawyers and has been frequently listed in Best Lawyers of American and Super Lawyer magazine. He entered the world of fiction in 1988 with the courtroom thriller Partners and followed that in 1995 with Conflicts of Interest. All of his novels, including The Alternate and Billy Strobe have been either regional or New York Times bestsellers. A former college athlete, Martel won the 100 meter hurdles in the U.S. National Masters Track and Field Championships in 1997, running the fastest time in the world for his age group.