Robert W. Small

For more than three decades, “Bob” Small has guided employers in dealing with commercial legal issues, especially those related to employment matters. He advises business how to avoid the expensive and distracting morass of employment-related litigation with timely and proactive advice that enables employers to avoid courtrooms and focus their assets and energy on business operations.  He both counsels and sits on Boards of Directors thereby gaining a deep appreciation for the breadth of concerns corporate managers regularly face.  Bob has authored innumerable clear and concise Employment Manuals, employment policies and job descriptions that help employees understand their obligations and guide managers to be able to anticipate and deal with thorny and complex employment issues in ways designed to resolve problems rather than accelerate them toward lawsuits. When appropriate Bob conducts employment audits designed to assure compliance with the myriad employment laws and regulations to which employers are subject. He investigates claims of wrongdoing to advise management and Boards how to address them before they get to a courtroom. 

Bob is a leading light in drafting and enforcing contracts designed to protect employers from the misuse and misappropriation of their valuable confidential business information and protecting employers from unlawful competition from former employees.  

When litigation is unavoidable, Bob aggressively represents clients unjustifiably accused of discrimination, victimized by the theft of their trade secrets, or harmed by unfair competition.  He is regularly called on to represent clients in commercial litigation arising from contractual disputes.  A strategist with a well-earned reputation as a litigator unafraid to take the right case to trial, Bob knows how to achieve cost effective and advantageous results for his clients.  His direct, commonsense approach, trial skills and knack for conducting fact and expert examinations in an easy-to-follow way enable him clearly and credibly to convey to judges and juries complex facts and issues at the heart of a case, producing the desired outcome. 

Believing that lawyers have a special obligation to give back to their community, Bob has represented pro bono at-risk children and organizations providing services to children in need.  For many years, Bob served on the governing bodies of non-profit and religious institutions.