Biography

Robert practices law the way he approaches his favorite hobby: sportscar racing, which demands precision, balance and an awareness of a myriad of factors from materials to machinery in a dynamic environment. There are less challenging pursuits, but Robert lives for challenges. His practice focuses on complex business, securities, and corporate litigation, including class actions, derivative suits, and the government investigations and enforcement actions that travel alongside them. Robert has spent a career tackling matters that require the simultaneous amalgamation of multiple legal disciplines and a deep understanding of his clients’ businesses in pursuit of their objectives in the dynamic environment of litigation and trials. He relishes the challenges presented and the opportunity to deliver results for his clients.

Derivative suits are among the most complex types of cases and Robert’s experience in this area is unmatched. He has twice stood before the California Supreme Court in cases involving derivative suit standing: Grosset v. Wenaas, 42 Cal. 4th 1100 (2008) and Turner v. Victoria, 15 Cal. 5th 99 (2023). Robert has tried and won derivative suits for a corporate board and management before the California Superior Court (Alexandros v. KOR Electronics, 2006 WL 6902614 (Cal. Super. 2006)) and for investors before the Texas State District Court, resulting in a $17 million jury verdict and settlements totaling $59 million for Robert's clients (Matthew Goldstein, Troubled Student Housing Firm Would Pay Tens of Millions to Investors, N.Y. Times, May 12, 2022). He also tried and won a case involving corporate governance before the Delaware Chancery Court (In re Genelux Corporation, 126 A.3d 644 (Del. Ch. 2015)). Only a handful of lawyers have done one of these things, as a craftsman entrusted to resolve the most challenging disputes Robert stands alone.

Robert's creative approach to solving legal problems has produced roughly one hundred federal and state court published opinions. Each of them is a record of work thought through carefully and finished with care — the kind of record that builds, opinion by opinion, into a body of craft.

Before founding his firm, Robert was a partner at DLA Piper LLP (US) and its predecessor, Gray Cary. At Gray Cary, Robert was elected as a partner after only six years of practice and then served as Co-Chair of the firm’s Business & Technology Litigation Group and on its Executive Committee, which led Gray Cary’s merger with Piper Rudnick and DLA, creating one of the world’s largest law firms. At DLA, Robert served as Co-Chair of DLA’s Global Securities Litigation Practice, a member of the Executive Committee, and Regional Managing Partner — roles that asked him to lead the work as well as do it.

Robert has authored many articles published in legal journals, law reviews and the financial press on topics that include usury laws, corporate governance, securities regulation and litigation, and class action litigation. He has also taught seminars and made presentations on these topics at national, state and local bar associations, civic organizations and universities.