Deborah J. Fox

Fox chairs Meyers Nave's statewide litigation and First Amendment practice groups. She frequently represents municipal governments in disputes ranging from wildfires to placement of cell towers, and from pandemic restrictions to officials' social media.

But a state Supreme Court decision she won on a narrow technical point has attracted litigators' attention, she said. The case concerned how San Bernardino County could fill an unexpectedly vacant seat on its board of supervisors. The justices' decision focused on questions about the automatic stay on appeal and the differences between mandatory and prohibitory injunctions. Daly v. County of San Bernardino, 2021 DJDAR 8085 (Cal., Aug. 9, 2021).

"I'm getting a lot of calls about that case because that's obviously something that comes up a lot in litigation," Fox said. "It was my first time up at the California Supreme Court."

On a topic with broader significance, Fox is defending regional governmental councils in Los Angeles and San Diego against lawsuits challenging how much affordable housing the cities within the regions must provide. "It's a fight about the issues that are at play in our state about... the crisis in affordable housing and how that housing should be allocated within the various cities," she said.

Earlier in the pandemic, Fox defended local governments' occupancy, mask and vaccine restrictions. Many are now resolved, but she still has cases pending in Pasadena, Mammoth Lakes and Nevada County. And she is waiting to learn the 9th Circuit's decision in a case she argued over San Joaquin County's gym restrictions. Best Supplement Guide LLC v. Newsom, 20-17362 (9th Circ., arg'd Dec. 10, 2021).

Fox is defending Los Altos against suits brought by both AT&T and Verizon over cell towers. But she also is working with the city on "a new, holistic ordinance and design guidelines" to balance aesthetics and carriers' need for coverage, she said.

In her First Amendment practice, Fox frequently consults on issues such as public protests. Currently, she also represents the city of Richmond in suing its mayor for posting closed-session, attorney-client privileged documents on his personal blog.

- Don DeBenedictis