John Fox

John C. Fox, Esq. is a Partner in the Palo Alto office and Chairs its Employment Group. Mr. Fox leads large and complex litigation matters in state and federal courts, in cases involving trade secrets, wage-hour and discrimination class actions, wrongful termination, corporate investigations, and the use of statistics in employment matters. He also provides business and strategic advice for a wide range of companies nationwide relating to their employment practices and helps build employment systems in a way designed to minimize legal risk. Mr. Fox has extensive trial experience, having spent more than 300 days in trial. Mr. Fox was also lead trial counsel in one of the three wage-hour class actions known to have been tried in California. He is an across-the-board employment lawyer representing management nationwide. Mr. Fox practices primarily in the courts in California but tries cases nationwide. In 2005, Mr. Fox was the California Employment Law Expert Witness offering testimony on behalf of the Board of Directors of The Walt Disney Company in the shareholder derivative lawsuit challenging Disney’s estimated $140 million severance package paid to its former President Michael Ovitz. Prior to joining Manatt, Mr. Fox was a partner at Fenwick & West, LLP and chaired its Employment and Labor Group for over a decade specializing in employment law applicable to high technology companies. Mr. Fox was also previously Executive Assistant to the Director of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), Employment Standards Administration, U.S. Department of Labor, where he was responsible for all enforcement and policy matters. Apart from drafting substantive employment discrimination regulations at OFCCP, Mr. Fox was responsible for contacts with the Congress and other federal agencies and The White House. Prior to his appointment to the OFCCP, Mr. Fox was in private practice representing management in employment cases arising nationwide.