J. Edward Johnson (often J. Ed) was a lawyer and historian whose professional career was largely set in the East Bay area of California.

J. Ed grew up on his father's farm and attended the high school associated with Brigham Young University, graduating in 1911, after which he took education courses, then securing employment as a teacher in Hinckley, Utah in 1912–1913.

[2] He began his study of law at the University of California in 1917, receiving his Juris Doctor in 1920.

[1] In 1926, he left those positions to be attorney for Pacific Coast Joint Stock Land Bank of San Francisco.

[citation needed] Johnson wrote several works of history, largely of the law in California and his local Church community, most notably his two-volume history of the California Supreme Court covering the years 1849 to 1950.