Robert J. Smith Partner

Robert J. Smith is a partner in Morgan Lewis's Labor and Employment Practice. Mr. Smith's practice includes counseling employers in the public and private sectors. His practice includes consulting with employers on the development of their Human Resources infrastructures and policies, intellectual property agreements, executive compensation and incentive programs, ADR programs and employment law audits. In the context of employment discrimination litigation, Mr. Smith has defended a large number of individual, collective and class actions alleging violations of various state and federal employment statutes and ERISA.

Among other complex cases, Mr. Smith served as chief defense counsel in Miller et al. v. The Hewlett-Packard Company, D. Idaho 2006 (class action by contingent workers alleging entitlement to ERISA and non-ERISA HP benefits); Terry et al. v. Agilent Technologies, Inc., CA No. 02-RB-1687 (BNB) (ADEA collective action and FMLA and Section 510 ERISA class actions); Morgan et al. v. Federal Home Loan Mortgage Company, CA No. 97-1157A (a race discrimination class action); Johannes v. Aerotek et al., CV-98-6153 RAP (collective action under the FLSA and California Wage-Hour class action); Gabel, et al. v. Martin Marietta Corporation, CA 89-3392, D.D.C., (collective action under the ADEA); Arnett v. The American National Red Cross, (race discrimination class action under Title VII and § 1981); Brereton v. Communications Satellite Corporation, No. 92-7210, D.C. Cir., (race discrimination class action under § 1981), and Gorman, et al. v. MITRE Corporation, E.D. Va. (collective action under the ADEA); Kinzie v. COMSAT, CA No. Aw93-666 (an ERISA and "top hat" benefits action).

Mr. Smith's practice includes the conduct of Board-level independent investigations of alleged wrongdoing in both private-sector corporate and public agency settings. Similarly, he advises clients with respect to corporate restructuring, mergers and acquisitions, and stock and asset sales. Counseling in this area has included advice and negotiation of executive employment and retention agreements.

Mr. Smith's practice also involves government contract compliance. He has represented a number of clients in OFCCP compliance reviews, negotiated conciliation agreements and litigated U.S. Department of Labor enforcement actions. This area of practice has also includes the asserting defenses to OFCCP jurisdiction, application of the "separate employer" defense or separate facility waiver/exemption, and the defense of contractor compensation programs against claims of systemic discrimination.

Mr. Smith's practice also involves advising clients on issues under the National Labor Relations Act. He has been involved in a number of union organizing and corporate campaigns and has negotiated single- and multi-plant collective bargaining agreements on behalf of organizations in health care, communications, broadcasting, entertainment, manufacturing, construction and service sectors. He also negotiated the first collective bargaining agreements for the newly formed Legal Services Corporation.

Before joining the firm, Mr. Smith was employed by Texas Instruments Incorporated, during which time he held a number of Human Resources positions, including corporate manager of Industrial Relations and corporate director of Equal Employment Opportunity. Mr. Smith has served as a member of the firm Governing Board and Finance Committee, and has chaired both the firm's Practice Development Committee and its Fiduciary Review Committee. Mr. Smith also served as deputy managing partner of the firm's Washington, D.C. office and managing partner of the firm's Northern Virginia office.

Mr. Smith is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia and Virginia and before the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal for the District of Columbia, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th, and 11th Circuits.