Robert W. Hayes is a member of the firm’s Business Litigation Section and sits on the firm’s Management Committee.
Bob has tried more than 50 substantial cases to verdict, judgment or arbitration award. In commercial disputes, he has obtained numerous multimillion-dollar awards, including two in excess of $25 million. Bob has also obtained defense verdicts in personal injury and property damage actions in which damages in excess of $10 million in damages were demanded. He has served as lead counsel in multiple appeals, including those in which published opinions were issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and the Supreme Courts of Pennsylvania, Delaware, West Virginia, Iowa, and Alabama.
In commercial disputes, Bob has been lead counsel in complex matters involving securities and common law fraud, patent, trademark and copyright infringement, the antitrust laws and unfair competition, and breach of contract claims. His contract claim experience extends to disputes involving government contracts. Bob has argued three procurement law appeals before the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania resulting in published opinions.
Bob is experienced in the sports and entertainment industry, representing professional sports franchises, professional athletes, concert promoters, owners and operators of stadiums, arenas and amphitheaters, musicians, professional photographers and music instrument retailers. He also represented a promoter in testifying before the Antitrust Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee concerning the Ticketmaster/Live Nation merger.
Bob has defended negligence, product liability and toxic tort claims and government environmental remediation actions. Representative experience includes serving as national coordinating counsel for product liability claims for a consumer safety product manufacturer. He has also been primary counsel in the defense of actions: (i) involving claims of personal injury or property damage resulting from or to abate exposure to carbon monoxide, lead and volatile organics; and (ii) arising of high rise office building, apartment, and residential fires, and passenger train and commercial and military aircraft crashes.
Many of the cases in which Bob has been involved were pursued on a class action basis or included in multi-district or other consolidated proceedings. His class action experience includes securities fraud, antitrust, mass tort and insurance claims and actions involving the banking industry. Bob argued class action issues before an en banc panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in one of the first appeals under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(f).
Bob authors and offers commentary for publications on various aspects of antitrust litigation, including The Legal Intelligencer and CNNMoney.com, on antitrust issues. Bob was also interviewed by The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel on the subprime mortgage crisis.
Bob graduated magna cum laude from Villanova University School of Law, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif and was a member of the Law Review, and earned his undergraduate degree, with honors, from St. Joseph’s University.