John C. Gray CIPP/US

John Gray is a partner in Womble Bond Dickinson Litigation Practice Group and a leader in the firm’s Data Privacy and Cybersecurity Group. He is also a member of the firm’s AI and Machine Learning practice.

As a litigator, John has more than a decade of experience in Arizona, California, and other forums across the nation. He has handled a wide range of cases and litigated hundreds of matters to final resolution, including numerous class actions, various complex commercial cases, bet-the-company disputes, and appeals. As detailed below, John’s primary area of focus is data privacy and cybersecurity, but he also represents clients in other types of disputes and in a number of industry sectors, including non-profit, financial services, tech, retail, manufacturing, real estate, construction, tourism, entertainment, fitness, healthcare, education, and government.

Data Privacy and Cybersecurity

As part of our Privacy and Cybersecurity Group, John represents clients in various regulatory investigations and litigation matters relating to privacy or data-protection issues, including data-breach class actions. He also advises clients on compliance with the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and various other laws and regulations pertaining to data privacy and protection.

Before joining the firm, John worked in the Consumer Protection and Advocacy Section of the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, where he served as senior litigation counsel, fintech sandbox counsel, and data privacy team leader. As data privacy team leader, John was responsible for dozens of data privacy investigations and litigation matters, many of which involved millions of data subjects and tens or hundreds of millions of dollars at issue. He also drafted significant portions of Arizona’s updated data breach notification law and new virtual coin offering law in 2018, and he led a group of more than 80 lawyers from more than 25 states and territories in the training and certification process to become Certified Information Privacy Professionals with the International Association of Privacy Professionals.

As a Certified Information Privacy Professional and a member of the Sedona Conference Working Group on Data Security and Privacy Liability, John has spoken and written extensively about privacy and security issues. In 2019, he also served as co-chair of the Technology Futures Subgroup of the Arizona Cybersecurity Team, where he worked with commercial, academic, government, and community leaders to assess cybersecurity threats and opportunities associated with new and emerging technologies.

Appeals

John has represented clients in appellate matters throughout the country.  In those matters, John has briefed appeals before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the California Court of Appeal, the Nevada Supreme Court, and the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division.  He has also briefed and argued several cases before the Arizona Supreme Court and Arizona Court of Appeals.  While in law school, John honed his appellate writing and advocacy skills serving as a Legal Research, Writing, and Advocacy Fellow and studying under former Ninth Circuit Judge Paul J. Watford.

Government Investigations

As former senior litigation counsel with the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, John has significant experience in government investigations relating to alleged consumer fraud or unfair, deceptive, and abusive acts and practices (UDAP) claims. At the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, John led one of the largest multistate consumer fraud investigations in recent years, and he served on several other executive committees for multistate investigations involving hundreds of millions or billions of dollars at issue. He is therefore well-positioned to defend clients who may be under investigation by state or federal authorities, and he has a keen understanding of both the procedural and substantive issues involved in such matters.

Financial Services and Insurance Disputes

John represents financial institutions, insurance companies, and related parties in a variety of litigation and arbitration matters. In particular, he has extensive experience defending broker-dealers and investment advisors in arbitrations before the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), and he has successfully moved to compel such arbitration in multiple matters originally filed in state or federal courts. In addition, John has represented financial services and insurance clients in securities class actions, bankruptcy matters, probate and garnishment actions, actions to enforce judgments, and cases alleging fraudulent lending practices and/or wrongful foreclosure.

Labor and Employment Disputes

John represents employers in various industries and has defended clients against claims relating to the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), overtime, meal breaks, rest breaks, wage statements, waiting time penalties, discrimination, retaliation, harassment, eavesdropping, wrongful termination, off-the-clock work, rounding, alternative workweeks, and the California Private Attorney General Act (PAGA). In particular, John has extensive experience litigating employment matters in California state and federal courts, including both putative class actions and individual matters.  John has also advised clients regarding employee handbooks, potential terminations, and severance agreements; he has litigated trade-secret, confidentiality, and non-compete claims involving former employees and contractors; and he has handled internal investigations under Title VII and the California Fair Employment and Housing Act.