Joshua O. Mates is a partner in the Employment & Labor practice group and a member of the Cooley Litigation department. He joined the Firm in September 2002 and is resident in the San Francisco and Palo Alto offices.

Mr. Mates' practice includes both employment counseling and litigation. In the litigation context, he has handled cases in federal and California courts involving disputes including breach of contract, wage and hour statutory violations, leave of absence compliance matters, discrimination, harassment, retaliation, wrongful termination, trade secret misappropriation and unfair competition. He has also represented employers in mediations, arbitrations and other forms of alternative dispute resolution, as well as before the California Labor Commissioner, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, and other administrative agencies.

In the counseling arena, Mr. Mates' expertise covers a broad spectrum of human resources matters, including internal investigations, personnel relations matters, employee raiding, misappropriation of trade secrets, contract negotiations, compliance with various wage and hour and other statutes, leave accommodations, employee allegations of discrimination, harassment and retaliation, developing and implementing personnel practices and procedures, due diligence for mergers and acquisitions, and structuring executive and incentive compensation. In addition, Mr. Mates has served for multiple years as a contributing editor to a leading California employment litigation practice guide.

Mr. Mates received a J.D. from Stanford Law School in 2002, where he served as an editor for the Stanford Law Review and the Stanford Technology Law Review. While at Stanford, Mr. Mates completed an externship with the Honorable James Ware of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Mr. Mates received a B.A., summa cum laude, in Communication Studies at the University of California in Los Angeles in 1998, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Prior to attending law school, Mr. Mates worked in Production and Development at the Los Angeles office of Comedy Central, where he participated in the production of such television programs as South Park, Win Ben Stein's Money, and The Man Show.

Mr. Mates is a member of the State Bar of California, and is also admitted to practice before the United States District Courts for the Central, Eastern, Northern and Southern Districts of California.