Debra L. Fischer
Debra has more than 35 years of experience advising on and litigating unfair competition and trade-secret issues that arise when employees change employment. She is seasoned at responding to motions for temporary restraining orders (TROs) and preliminary injunctions in employee mobility disputes across the country in state and federal courts and in arbitration. She offers strategic advice to employers at every stage and provides in-depth knowledge regarding the quickly evolving noncompete law and regulatory landscape.
Debra Fischer has a well-established track record of helping companies hire employees that will help their businesses thrive, including back-to-back jury wins in 2023. Leading insurance brokerages, accounting firms, other financial services firms, and recruiting companies, along with clients from other industries, routinely turn to Debra to defend against challenges from competitors that seek to stop top talent from competing or make it financially unviable for those individuals to do business at their new employer.
Debra also handles employment disputes with high-level executives and other confidential matters involving high profile individuals. Debra’s appellate work includes successfully briefing and arguing cases in state and federal courts of appeal, including briefing in the US Supreme Court.
Debra is co-leader of the labor and employment practice’s Trade Secret and Unfair Competition Task Force. Debra led Morgan Lewis’s Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Noncompete Rule Task Force in advising clients in the wake of the FTC’s now defunct rule largely banning employers from entering into or maintaining noncompete clauses with workers.
Before joining Morgan Lewis, Debra led the labor and employment practice of another international law firm and was a member of the firm’s three-person managing partner team.
Debra has provided pro bono assistance to parents of children seeking to obtain better and more comprehensive health education in public schools, and currently serves as board Chair for the Forgotten International, a nonprofit organization dedicated to developing programs to alleviate poverty, particularly for women and children.
