John S. Terry

John was admitted to the Bar in 1998 and is a second-generation lawyer. He is a lifelong resident of Carmel. He says that he went to all three Carmel schools – Carmel Elementary, Carmel Junior High and Carmel High School. His father worked for one of the biggest law firms in Indiana, but counselled John to strike a balance between work and life which helped drive his decision to open his own law firm. With Terry Legal Group, LLC, he is bringing his 25+ years of legal experience to his home community to fulfill his father’s advice.

John regularly advises men and women, their companies and families, through the day to day and long-term challenges they may encounter. John prepares simple “mom and pop” wills and trusts as well as more complicated estate documents for those that need to develop a plan to avoid or mitigate the federal estate tax. For business owners, he provides advice regarding business formation and entity selection, contract preparation and review, asset and stock sales and acquisitions, and business succession planning. The touchstone of his practice is the lasting relationships he makes with his clients.

Community service is also an important hallmark of John's non-professional life. He has served on the Board of Directors for the Friends of Hamilton County Parks, Hamilton County Area Neighborhood Development, Inc (HAND) and the Actors Theatre of Indiana. He can be found also coaching supporting his children's sports teams through the Carmel Dad's Club and Mudsock Youth Supporting Athletics.

John is a past president of the Hamilton County Bar Association. For over a decade, he has held a preeminent AV rating from Martindale Hubbell, is rated as a 10 out of 10 attorney by Avvo, and has been previously recognized as a Rising Star and a Top Trust and Estate Planning Attorney by the Indianapolis Monthly Magazine, In 2024 and 2025 he was recognized by BusinessRate as a Top Estate Planning Attorney in Carmel. In 2015 he was a contributing author for a Thompson Reuters publication called Inside the Minds™ – Best Practices for Structuring Trusts and Estates.

John is a life member of the NRA and a fan of IU Basketball, the Pacers, the Colts and the Wabash College Little Giants. John is an avid gardener and often cooks with the vegetables from his garden. In his spare time he enjoys reading classic mysteries like Sherlock Holmes. He also writes poetry and literature and hopes one day to publish his own book of fiction.