Debra L. Fischer

Morgan, Lewis & Bockius • Century City


Debra Fischer has a nationwide employee-mobility practice devoted exclusively to defending companies that hire employees away from competitors and the employees they hire. "I like defending the claims because what we do is promote fair competition," Fischer said.


For instance, early last year, she won complete defense verdicts in two jury trials -- one in Oregon, the other in Washington -- for Alliant Insurance Services against allegations of improperly luring away brokers from a competitor.


Early this year, she won a three-day evidentiary hearing to block a preliminary injunction sought against staffing company Jobot by a competitor trying to enforce a noncompete agreement. Hayes Medical Staffing LLC v. Eichelberg, 0:23-cv-60748 (S.D. Fla., filed April 21, 2023).


She also represents Alliant in a half-dozen cases now held at the California Supreme Court awaiting the court's decision in a similar case. In each of her cases, Fischer won declaratory relief actions that prevented the large insurance brokerage Lockton from enforcing restrictive covenants in California under Missouri law. Giblin v. Lockton, 22STCV39876 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed Dec. 22, 2022).


Currently, legal questions about covenants not to compete are up in the air because the FTC recently promulgated a rule that would generally bar noncompetes nationwide beginning next month. Since then, a federal judge in Texas enjoined the rule from taking effect as to the parties in the case.


Fischer predicted there will be more litigation challenging the FTC's proposed rule. "In the meantime, companies are trying to figure out" how to respond, she said.


She heads a task force on the rule that her firm set up when the rule was first proposed in January 2023. The group has sent multiple "law flashes" to clients about the developments, posted FAQs on the firm website and produced several webinars to help clients understand the rule's implications.


"What can they be doing to get ready? Should they be changing their agreements?" she said. There are all sorts of questions about how much they should be doing now and what they should be doing if it goes into effect."


Another large part of Fischer's practice is helping clients avoid such litigation in the first place. She and her team encourage clients to review any agreements or restrictions on employees before hiring them, determine whether the restrictions are enforceable, ensure the employees return property belonging to the former employer and abide by lawful restrictions, she said.


"In the perfect world, they're coming to us before they hire employees, and we can help them every step of the way and hopefully can avoid litigation," Fischer said. "But if they can't, we're obviously there to defend them and we take cases up to and through trial."


Separately, Fischer and her team are working with the ACLU to assist a young woman who was adopted from the Philippines by a U.S. citizen father when she was a toddler. She was deported in 2006 when she was 24, leaving behind her aging parents and her U.S. citizen children.