FOCUS
Rob Smeltzer has seventeen years of federal and
state court experience in all phases of labor and employment, commercial, and non-patent
intellectual property litigation.
In the labor and employment field he has handled countless
Title VII, ADEA, ADA, FLSA, NLRA, ERISA and FMLA matters before
the EEOC, the Illinois Department of Human Rights, the Illinois
Human Rights Commission, the Chicago Commission on Human Relations,
the U.S. Department of Labor, the National Labor Relations
Board, and state and federal courts. In addition, Rob regularly
represents clients in cases involving employment related torts
(e.g. defamation, breach of fiduciary duty, tortious interference), wrongful discharge,
employee handbook, and wage and sales commission disputes.
He is an Adjunct Professor at Loyola University School of
Law, where he has taught comprehensive courses in Labor Law,
Employment Law and Employment Discrimination, and has contributed
to several major treatises in the area, including Holloway
& Leech, Employment Termination -- Rights and Remedies
(BNA 1993) and Tobias, Litigating Wrongful Discharge Claims,
(Callahan, 1989). Rob also conducts sexual harassment investigations
and training.
With respect to commercial litigation, he regularly handles
complex restrictive covenant and trade secret litigation,
contract disputes and business torts litigation in state and federal
courts throughout the country.
In the intellectual property area, Mr. Smeltzer regularly handles
trademark, trade dress and copyright infringement cases, as
well as related state law actions for unfair competition,
trade secret misappropriation and common law infringement,
in state and federal courts throughout the country. He is
a member of the ABA’s Section on Intellectual Property,
and continually prosecutes trademark and copyright registrations
before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the Copyright
Office. He is also qualified to handle appeals, cancellations
and other proceedings before the TTAB.
In recognition of his experience and reputation, Rob was
selected by the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin in 2005 as one
of Illinois’ “Forty [Attorneys] Under 40 to Watch.”
The 40 recipients of this unique honor were selected from
more than 1200 statewide nominations submitted by fellow attorneys,
judges and clients, with attorneys from the nominee’s
own firm not eligible to participate.
EDUCATION
Mr. Smeltzer received his J.D. from the University of Cincinnati
College of Law, where he was a member of the Law Review and
won numerous American Jurisprudence Prizes, as well as the
Paxton & Seasongood Advocacy Award.
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