Jon Fougner

About Jon Fougner

Jon represents companies, officers, and directors in high-stakes securities and fiduciary-duty litigation.

Jon advises and represents clients in complex shareholder disputes. He has litigated in state and federal courts and arbitration, handled class and non-class cases, and worked at the trial and appellate level. He seeks creative solutions to clients’ challenges, including counselling on ways to avoid litigation. He was named a 2024 Rising Star by Super Lawyers.

Before joining Freshfields, Jon focused on coordinated and multidistrict litigations, including antitrust cases in the pharmaceutical, polyurethane, and telescope industries. During law school, he published a quantitative model for antitrust enforcement in the Yale Journal on Regulation, served as Projects Editor of the Yale Law Journal, and selected articles for the Yale Journal of Law & Technology.

Jon has been passionate about innovation since growing up near Silicon Valley. After college, he advised financial-technology ventures at Goldman Sachs and helped build the social-advertising platform at Facebook.  He has been granted patents for dispute-resolution software. He has backed information-technology and life-sciences start-ups.

With his corporate-transactions colleagues, Jon advises local entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds on a pro bono basis. In his free time, he enjoys supporting underrepresented storytellers in independent film.

Recent work

• Class Actions: Worked with economists in defense of leading technology companies and their executives in securities litigation.
• Derivative Litigation: Obtained dismissal of shareholder derivative action against leading technology company and its directors and officers.
• Delaware Chancery: Secured expedited relief from the Delaware Court of Chancery through relatively untested provision of the Delaware General Corporation Law, § 205, ratifying the stock issuances associated with the company’s de-SPAC.
• Books and Records: Handled books-and-records demands under Delaware General Corporation Law § 220.
• California Entities: Represented clients on California merger issues, in transactional and litigation matters.
• Investment Due Diligence: Assisted venture-capital fund to mitigate litigation risk from proposed investment.
• Preventative Counselling: Advised technology companies on contract negotiations to achieve business goals without litigation.