Bob currently serves as chair of the firm's Labor and Employment Practice Area. His practice is devoted to representing management in all areas of labor and employment law. Bob both litigates and advises clients on a day-to-day basis regarding various employment related issues, including discipline and discharge, discrimination and civil rights, sexual harassment, and non-competition agreements. He also assists clients with various disability and leave issues under the ADA and FMLA, wage and hour issues, drug and alcohol testing, veterans’ employment rights, union avoidance and other issues. Bob litigates employment cases across the country for locally headquartered companies and has obtained favorable jury verdicts in various employment lawsuits including age, sex and race discrimination claims, harassment, and retaliatory discharge claims.
Representative matters include:
- Jury verdict in favor of national aerospace and defense industry supplier in national origin failure to hire case in federal district court in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
- Bench trial verdict in favor of landscaping product manufacturer enforcing non-compete agreement in Chancery Court in Nashville, Tennessee in which former employee was found to have breached enforceable agreement and was ordered to pay $395,000 in attorneys’ fees.
- Jury verdict in Chancery Court, Wilson County, Tennessee in favor of a major restaurant chain in a retaliatory discharge claim under the Tennessee Human Rights Act.
- Jury verdict in favor of assisted living provider in a wrongful termination age discrimination case in Cleveland, Ohio federal district court.
- Jury verdict in favor of a national dialysis provider in a wrongful termination race discrimination case in New Orleans, Louisiana federal district court.
- Jury verdict in favor of an international provider of gas and oil drilling services in a worker’s compensation retaliatory discharge case in state court in Nacogdoches, Texas.
- Jury verdict in favor of employer in a worker’s compensation retaliatory discharge claim in federal district court in Kansas City, Missouri.
- Jury verdict in favor of employer in age discrimination wrongful discharge claim in Galveston, Texas federal district court.
- Jury verdict in favor of staffing agency in age discrimination case in federal district court in Houston, Texas.
Prior to joining the firm, Bob was labor counsel with HCA where he managed employment litigation for HCA affiliated hospitals. Before his work at HCA, he practiced labor and employment law with the Houston, Texas firm of Vinson & Elkins.
Bob graduated summa cum laude from Louisiana State University, received a Masters of Divinity degree from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and received his law degree from the University of Tennessee College of Law, where he graduated with highest honors, was named to the Order of the Coif and served as a staff member of the Tennessee Law Review.
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