Robert is a partner in Shoosmiths' Employment team.
Robert advises national and international employer clients on both the contentious and non-contentious aspects of employment law including defending all types of tribunal claim; workplace investigations; restrictive covenant and enforcement/defence; corporate restructures involving employee redundancies and/or site closures/moves; employment support on all types of business acquisition and disposal; outsourcing projects and real estate acquisitions/disposals.
Robert has a strong Tech sector focus and a particular interest in the effect of Artificial Intelligence on workforces (augmentation, variation and replacement of jobs) and the role of HR teams. Robert also works with clients in the financial services, retail & consumer and real estate sectors.
Robert has spent 6 months working in Palo Alto advising US Tech clients on UK employment law and co-ordinating cross border advice on projects. He has also spent 3 months on secondment at a Government entity in Doha advising and training the General Counsel and HR teams on employment laws, regulations and policies. His experience means he is well placed to advise companies on global employment issues.
Robert's recent experience includes:
- advising a food company on a serious misconduct investigation into alleged fraud by Finance Director and Finance Manager;
- a bank on the TUPE aspects of its IT and data outsourcing/insourcing arrangements in the UK and India;
- advising a leading professional services firm on a multi-million High Court claim for breach of director duties and breach of contract against former Chairman and Managing Director following a team move;
- a hedge fund on the employment aspects of acquiring a group for £500 million;
- advising an entertainment company on a multi-site restructure with site closures, 1,500 redundancies and intra-group TUPE transfers;
- advising a retailer on obtaining undertakings to uphold restrictive covenants and dissolution of a competitive business;
- a digital network on the employment aspects of setting up a news channel in the UK;
- advising a hotel group on serious misconduct investigation into alleged theft of £600,000 of stock;
- advising administrators on successful defence of protective award claims issued by 190 employees; and
- a private equity house on the employment aspects of acquiring a group with thousands of employees for £3.5 billion.
Robert is a member of the Employment Lawyers Association and regularly speaks at external events and contributes to publications.