John Ridley is a partner in the Labor & Employment Practice Group.  John joined the firm in April 2002 and practices out of the Florham Park office.

John's practice is focused on management-side labor and employment law.  He has been involved in litigating employment and labor disputes, and counseling in those areas, for more than 35 years.  He has successfully defended employers in large-scale class and collective actions involving employee and applicant claims of race, age, wage and benefits discrimination.  He has argued a number of significant employment causes in the federal courts of appeal and has argued an Age Discrimination in Employment Act/Fair Labor Standards Act case in the U.S. Supreme Court.

John has written numerous articles and speaks regularly before business and professional groups.  Most recently, he has taught at seminars on "Employment Discrimination - Pretrial to Verdict" (Dec. 2011),  “Employment Law in Federal Courts,” “Trial Techniques for Employment Lawyers,” “Litigating the Employment Discrimination Case,”  “Employers Beware:  Workplace Violence” and “Defending FLSA Collective Actions” for the New Jersey Institute of Continuing Legal Education.  He has spoken at the Annual Meeting of the American Bar Association, and addressed the American Employment Law Council on “Opposing Collective Actions under the FLSA.”

John received a bachelor's degree in English from St. Peter’s College, and his LL.B. from the University of Virginia School of Law.  He is admitted to practice in the State of New Jersey and its district court; and is also admitted to practice in the U.S. Supreme Court and the First, Second, Third, Ninth and Federal Circuit Courts of Appeal.  Upon graduating from law school, he served a two-year clerkship for the Hon. Lawrence A. Whipple in the federal district court in New Jersey, and then joined a Newark, N.J. law firm, where he remained for more than 30 years, prior to joining Drinker Biddle in April 2002.

John has been, for a number of years, selected for inclusion among the International Who’s Who of Management Labour and Employment Lawyers, is recognized in Chambers USA Leading Lawyers of Business and has been among those named Best Lawyers and New Jersey's Super Lawyers. 

He has served as a board member of the Trial Attorneys of New Jersey and is active in the Equal Employment Opportunity Committee of the American Bar Association’s Section on Labor and Employment Law.  He presently serves on the executive committee of the Labor and Employment Section of the New Jersey State Bar Association, and is a member of the Essex County, New Jersey State and American Bar Associations.  John is a resident of Bernardsville, N.J.