Rob provides practical advice and representation to employers and executives, covering all facets of the working relationship. His expertise covers all areas of employment and industrial relations, occupational health and safety, workplace investigations and employment-related migration, and he advises private and public Australian and international companies on dismissals, breach of contract, redundancy advice, and Fair Work Ombudsman investigations.

Rob regularly presents seminars to business groups, company boards, educational events for lawyers on various employment law and OHS themes. He is also the author of Post-Employment Restraint of Trade, published by Federation Press, reflecting his practice in advising current employers, and exiting executives on their post-employment obligations.

Rob was admitted to practise in England and Wales in 1992, and the Supreme Court of Victoria and the High Court of Australia in 1997. He is an Accredited Specialist in Workplace Relations Law and Commercial Litigation, and has a Masters of Intellectual Property Law from Monash University. He also practised as a Trade Marks Attorney.

Rob is a Victorian committee member of the Australian Institute of Health and Safety, and was involved in establishing workplace relations as a specialist area of accreditation for the Law Institute of Victoria (LIV). He has served on the LIV’s specialist committee since 2002, to establish standards and set examinations for lawyers seeking accreditation in workplace relations.

Rob leads Rigby Cooke Lawyers’ pro bono commitment to Refugee Legal where our lawyers volunteer for Refugee Legal’s programs assisting asylum seekers.

Significant experience

  • Representing employers in all Fair Work Commission claims, anti-discrimination claims and Court disputes (State and Federal).
  • Conducting independent investigations into workplace misconduct.
  • Representing employers in OH&S WorkSafe investigations and prosecutions from ‘near misses’ to fatalities in the Magistrates’ Court, County Court and Coroners’ Court, and advising on related workers compensation matters.
  • Corporate social responsibility obligations arising in the workplace, eg equal employment opportunity obligations, Modern Slavery reporting obligations, management of whistle-blower disclosures.
  • Acting for senior executives (eg CEOs, CFOs,) and board members in dispute with their employers, covering issues such as intellectual property, share disputes, defamation, directors’ duties and white-collar crime (insider trading, fraud).
  • Employment-related migration including temporary and permanent work visa applications, and Australian Border Force investigations. He is registered as a lawyer with the Department of Home Affairs (LPN 5510986), and was previously a registered migration agent since 2005.

Qualifications

Accredited Specialist in Workplace Relations

Accredited Specialist in Commercial Litigation

Master of Laws (Intellectual Property),
Monash University

Bachelor of Laws (Hons),
Liverpool John Moores University, United Kingdom

Admitted in Victoria and England

Memberships

Law Institute of Victoria

Australian Institute of Health & Safety

Workplace Relations Law Specialist Accreditation Advisory Committee

Law Society of England and Wales

Rob works with