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Canada (EN) 
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Bob is a strategic advocate and trusted legal advisor for business leaders. Bob represents employers and executives in high-stakes labor and employment law matters. He regularly helps in-house counsel and business leaders solve difficult problems, leveraging his 30+ years of experience and deep knowledge of the national market. Bob has taken and defended hundreds of depositions, resolved hundreds of lawsuits, and successfully obtained jury verdicts, arbitration decisions, and appellate decisions. Early in his career, Bob participated in the development of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and attended the signing ceremony of the ADA on the White House South Lawn by President George H.W. Bush.
Bob focuses on solving problems involving all areas of labor and employment law, including discrimination, harassment, retaliation, whistleblowers, wage and hour, class and collective actions, non-competition disputes, leaves of absence, employment contracts, investigations, policies, union labor matters and workplace safety. Bob has held numerous firm leadership roles, including managing shareholder of the large Raleigh office of the firm for over a decade. He has spent nearly his entire legal career at Ogletree and is skilled at aligning clients with the firm’s significant resources to deliver solutions for multi-state and multinational operations, ensuring consistency and efficiency.
Bob has a long record of public and civic service, including assisting with the founding and leadership of the North Carolina Economic Development Partnership, leadership of the North Carolina Ports Authority, and the Raleigh Convention and Visitors’ Bureau.
Bob represents diverse industries, including higher education, retail, financial services, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, professional services, hospitality, manufacturing, sales, software, and technology. He serves as the firm’s relationship shareholder for numerous firm clients.
Bob is named to The Best Lawyers in America® (2012–2026 editions), where he has been recognized as Labor Law – Management “Lawyer of the Year” several times. North Carolina Business Magazine has named Bob to its Legal Elite Labor & Employment lawyer list for many years. Bob is also recognized in Chambers USA and by Super Lawyers as one of a handful of North Carolina attorneys for corporate employment defense litigation. He is rated AV Preeminent® by Martindale-Hubbell, the highest peer rating available. He is a Fellow in the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, which requires rigorous peer vetting and evaluation of candidates’ character, integrity, and professional experience.
Bob’s experiences include:
- Defending litigation and leading the public relations strategy in one of the most media-covered disputes during the past 20 years;
- defending claims of race-discrimination brought by well-known and aggressive national race-discrimination attorneys;
- defending a financial services client charged with disability discrimination;
- defending a technology company against claims of retaliation;
- defending a healthcare system sued for breach of employment contract and disability discrimination;
- defending a higher education client whose faculty governance system was challenged by disgruntled former faculty members;
- defending a media company sued for race discrimination and sex harassment;
- nationwide defense of pandemic-motivated wrongful termination claims;
- developing complex C-Suite contracts and restrictive covenants;
- providing employment-related advice on behalf of buyers and sellers in due diligence phases;
- workplace investigations of alleged financial crimes, harassment, discrimination, bullying, and many other allegations; and
- coordinating reductions in force throughout numerous industries.
