John R. FitzGerald

Associate

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John R. FitzGerald

Associate

Milwaukee 414.297.5079

Practice Areas

Education

  • Notre Dame Law School (J.D., magna cum laude, 2019)
    • Editor-in-Chief, Notre Dame Law Review
    • Dean’s Circle Fellow (top 10% of class)
  • University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (B.A., summa cum laude, 2016)
    • Phi Beta Kappa

Admissions

  • Wisconsin
  • The Eastern District of Wisconsin
  • The Western District of Wisconsin
  • The Northern District of Illinois
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit

John (Jack) R. FitzGerald is an associate and litigation lawyer with Foley & Lardner LLP, based in the firm’s Milwaukee office, where he is a member of the firm’s Labor & Employment Practice Group. Jack represents employers in state and federal court, and before administrative bodies, in a wide range of labor and employment matters, including those involving discrimination and retaliation, non-compete/unfair competition and trade secrets, and wage & hour class actions. Jack’s practice also involves defending and advising employers on safety and health-related matters under the Occupational Safety & Health Act (OSHA) and counseling clients on non-compete issues.

Presentations and Publications

  • Sane, Manipulative Self-Harm: When Hostage and Hostage Taker Become One, 123 W. Va. L. Rev. 583 (2021)
  • Non-Merit-Based Tests Have No Merit: Restoring District Court Discretion Under § 1915(e)(1), 93 Notre Dame L. Rev. 2169 (2018), cited by the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Watts v. Kidman, 42 F.4th 755 (7th Cir. 2022)

Clerkships

Prior to joining Foley, Jack clerked for the Honorable Gerald Bard Tjoflat of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.  He also clerked for the Honorable Michael P. Mills of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi. While in law school, Jack interned for the Honorable William C. Griesbach of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin.

25 March 2024 Labor & Employment Law Perspectives

States with Pending Legislation to Ban Employee Noncompetes: Maine Poised to be Next State to Enact a Ban

As we continue to report, noncompete agreements are an area of ever-increasing scrutiny and limitation.
07 March 2024 Article

Navigating Trade Secret Litigation In A High-Stakes Landscape

These may look like Powerball jackpots: $764 million, $2 billion, $940 million. But they are recent trade secret verdicts returned by juries in the last few years.
26 October 2023

Noncompete Physician Agreements: What You Need to Know

Foley's Health Care & Life Sciences Sector and Providers of Health Care Services Area of Focus will host an informative CLE webinar on how to navigate noncompete clauses with physicians and the health care industry.
17 July 2023 Blogs

Religious Accommodation for Employees: The Potential Impact and Likely (Unintended) Consequences of SCOTUS’ Groff v. DeJoy Decision

We recently wrote about Groff v. DeJoy, the Supreme Court decision reinterpreting the meaning of “undue hardship” for Title VII religious accommodations to actually mean “undue hardship,” as opposed to minimal costs. In this follow-up post, we address the potential impact and trade-offs of the Groff decision on employers and the protection of religious rights in the workplace.
10 July 2023 Labor & Employment Law Perspectives

States with Penalties for Non-Compete Law Violations

In recent months, we have written quite a bit on the continuing trend to restrict employee non-compete agreements.
13 February 2023 Blogs

Wisconsin Employers Don’t Owe Employees Who Voluntarily Cut Their Meal Breaks Short

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit recently affirmed that Wisconsin wage and hour law does not permit employees to game the system with respect to full and free meal breaks.
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