Fred A. Rowley, Jr. is a litigation partner based in the Los Angeles and Palo Alto offices of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. He handles appeals and complex litigation, and serves as co-chair of the firm's nationwide Supreme Court and appellate practice. Fred represents clients ranging from Fortune 100 companies to nonprofit organizations in appeals before federal and state courts across the country. He has argued more than 50 appeals and served as lead counsel in dozens more. He has presented argument before the U.S. Supreme Court, the California Supreme Court, and the Delaware Supreme Court (three-justice and en banc panels). Fred frequently appears before the California Courts of Appeal and the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Ninth and Second Circuits, and has also presented arguments in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court. In 2019, Fred was recognized as one of the “Most Influential Minority Lawyers” by the Los Angeles Business Journal. 

Fred’s appellate representations cover a wide range of subjects and issues, spanning civil, criminal, and bankruptcy matters. He has particular expertise and experience in labor and employment cases, representing companies in arbitration, discrimination, and class action appeals; in the securities field, representing executives and companies in securities class action appeals; in the banking industry, representing banks in appeals arising out of the 2008 financial crisis; and in the telecommunications and utilities industries, representing industry groups and companies in regulatory and complex litigation appeals. Fred also has an active U.S. Supreme Court practice. For many years, he has co-taught Supreme Court advocacy with Professor Stuart Banner at the UCLA Law School Supreme Court Clinic, which represents indigent criminal defendants in filing certiorari petitions.

Prior to joining Wilson Sonsini, Fred was a litigation partner at Munger, Tolles & Olson, where he helped establish and build the firm’s appellate practice group. During his time at MTO, he left for four years to serve as an assistant United States attorney in the Central District of California, where he handled criminal appeals, before rejoining in 2006. Following law school, Fred served as a law clerk to the Honorable James R. Browning of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (1997-1998) and the Honorable David F. Levi of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California (1998-1999).

Fred is an elected Fellow of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers and a member of the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers. He is regularly ranked as a leading appellate lawyer in Chambers USA and the Daily Journal. In Chambers USA, clients have described him as “brilliant, rigorous and dedicated” and “extremely smart and an excellent writer,” noting that he “will take enormously complex concepts and explain them perfectly.” He also received recognition from the Daily Journal in its annual review of “Top Appellate Reversals” for his win in King v. Comp Partners, 5 Cal.5th 1039 (2018), an important workers’ compensation appeal in the California Supreme Court.

Throughout his career, Fred has played a leadership role in civic affairs and bar organizations. He currently serves on the Advisory Board of the Ninth Judicial Circuit Historical Society. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute, serving as adviser to the Restatement (Fourth) of the Foreign Relations Law of the United States, and served for many years on the California Commission on Uniform State Laws, representing the State of California at a national conference on uniform laws issues. Previously, Fred served as co-chair of the American Bar Association’s Appellate Practice Committee, co-chair of the Central District of California Lawyer Representatives to the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference, and president of the Federal Bar Association of Los Angeles. He has also served as a member of the California State Bar’s Standing Committee on Appellate Courts and is a past fellow of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

Outside the law, Fred is active in the community. He has coached youth baseball and soccer, and served as a president and board member of the Pasadena Southwest Little League. He previously served on the boards of Foothill Family Service (a non-profit that provides counseling and educational services to needy families in the Los Angeles area) and the Center for Asian Americans United for Self-Empowerment (a non-profit that promotes Asian-Americans in politics).