Rob has over 40 years’ experience as an employment lawyer, most recently as a partner for 20 years at Bell Gully (retiring from the firm in 2018). Prior to that, Rob was at Russell McVeagh for 20 years.
Rob was one of only three employment lawyers ranked in Band 1 by Chambers Asia Pacific 2018 for New Zealand, and was one of only two employment lawyers in New Zealand to have held this top ranking for the past 10 years. He was also named as a leading individual in the Labour and Employment section of Legal 500 2018.
In this year’s Doyle Guide to Leading Employment Law Barristers in New Zealand, Rob is one of only two Recommended Junior Counsel.
Client comments in the legal directories describe Rob as “the best employment lawyer I have ever dealt with, especially in litigation,” adding that “he is a very calm operator and I really trust him.” Another client said that Rob “acted on a very complex mediation and is by far the most experienced in the field.”
Rob has advised many of New Zealand’s major employers over the years on both contentious and commercial employment issues. Rob also has extensive experience advising chief executives and other senior managers on offers of employment, their employment agreements and exiting their employer. He also has expertise in relation to restraint of trade issues.
He has appeared as counsel in many leading cases, and on hundreds of occasions in the Employment Court, the Labour Court, the Arbitration Court, the Employment Relations Authority, the Employment Tribunal, the Waterfront Industry Tribunal, the Human Rights Review Tribunal, the Complaints Review Tribunal, the Court of Appeal, the High Court, the District Court, and in arbitrations.
Rob has advised on and managed many hundreds of investigations, mediations and disciplinary procedures, and he has been involved in around 400 mediations as either counsel or mediator. He was a founding member of the Institute of Employment Arbitrators and Mediators Inc. and is a member of the Arbitrators’ and Mediators’ Institute of New Zealand Inc. Rob is also a member of the Australasian Association of Workplace Investigators (AAWI).
Rob was previously Chair of the Employment and Industrial Relations Law Committee of the International Bar Association, and he is a former member of the Executive Council of the Global Employment Institute. Rob was for 20 years a part-time lecturer on employment law at Auckland University Law School.
Rob is available to be engaged as a mediator in relation to employment disputes, or as an investigator into employee complaints and employer concerns about employee behaviour. Rob is authorised by the Law Society to accept direct instructions from clients.
