Lynette K. Fons

Lynette knows that words matter. As a litigator, working with words and experts is what she enjoys most.

Lynette has a long career representing businesses, non-profits, and governmental entities in commercial, regulatory, and litigation matters as well as personnel management. Her practice includes negotiation, government procurement and contracting, policy analysis, risk assessment, ethics, training, investigations, compliance monitoring, and anti-corruption.

Her experience includes representing clients in commercial disputes and defending claims involving general and/or professional negligence, intentional torts, premises liability, products liability, environmental accidents, chemical exposure, toxic torts, healthcare, and insurance practices. She is a client resource and frequent speaker on risk management, discovery and ethics.

Prior to joining MWH, Lynette served in several roles with the City of Houston, Texas. First, she served as First Assistant City Attorney, where she oversaw all city litigation as well as sensitive investigations and strategic projects. Additionally, she drafted contracts, ordinances, press releases, legislation, policies and procedures; negotiated settlements, contract terms, and participated in union bargaining. Lynette’s second position with the City of Houston was Chief Compliance Officer, where she designed and implemented the city’s first Office of Compliance and Ethics. The department identified, assessed, and monitored the city’s compliance obligations and facilitated and tracked remediation measures as required. Policy and training materials were developed, and employee training and executive briefings delivered.

While working for the City of Houston, Lynette managed 61 attorneys in five Legal Department practice groups.  She was responsible for briefing City executives and elected officials regarding the strengths and weaknesses of the City’s position.  Her interactions with state and federal agencies, including the Department of Justice, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services provide unique insight into her case handling strategy at MWH.

A Matter of Interest: Repressed Memories

Lynette handled a case involving the issue of repressed memories in a high-stakes, high-profile case. The case involved extra scrutiny due to its media exposure and public opinion on repressed and/or recovered memories. To counter this potential scrutiny, Lynette familiarized herself with the scientific literature on repressed memories. She then developed a litigation plan in which she effectively examined witnesses and retained an expert who successfully challenged the assumptions, premises, and claims made by the opposing side.