Overview

Robert C. Long is a widely-respected leader on the complex labor and employment issues that arise in the context of corporate transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, bankruptcy, downsizing, reorganization and turn-around work with troubled companies or industries. Robert is the founder of Littler Mendelson’s Business Restructuring Practice Group. He regularly works with corporate clients and private equity firms to guide them in structuring corporate transactions to minimize risk and maximize the value and success of those transactions from a labor, employment, and employee benefits perspective. This includes transaction planning, due diligence, deal documentation, re-negotiation of labor agreements and pre-and post-closing integration activities. Robert frequently collaborates with leading mergers and acquisitions corporate lawyers, accountants and management consultants on such engagements.

An experienced labor negotiator, Robert has represented management in more than 300 labor contract negotiations, often in the context of high-stakes first contracts or successor agreements involving a major restructuring of the labor-management relationship. He has served as chief negotiator in a number of national contract negotiations and represented multi-employer associations in their negotiation of industry-wide contracts. He has extensive experience with most of the country's largest unions.

Robert was retained as the chief labor negotiator for the City of Columbus, Ohio from 1992 through 1997. He continues to represent significant public sector clients in collective bargaining, interest arbitration, and other traditional labor and employment discrimination matters.

Robert also has an extensive union avoidance practice, including handling policy and strategy development activities, union vulnerability risk assessments and related management training, as well as representation proceedings before the National Labor Relations Board. Robert is a leader in developing and delivering management and employee training courses, including sexual harassment, positive employee relations, and managing in a union environment. He also is a popular speaker on traditional labor and business restructuring matters.

With clients that range from small closely-held companies to Fortune 50 companies, Robert most frequently represents:

  • Private equity firms
  • Investment bankers
  • Transportation/delivery/logistics companies
  • Manufacturers
  • Retail and consumer service companies
  • Forest/ paper products companies
  • Healthcare institutions
  • Financial institutions
  • Public sector entities

Prior to joining Littler in August 2003, Robert worked at a Chicago law firm for more than 24 years. He was a founder and co-chair of that firm's business restructuring labor and employment group.

Professional & Community Affiliations

Member

Association for Corporate Growth

Member

Turnaround Management Association

Member

American Bar Association

Member

Illinois State Bar Association

Member

Chicago Bar Association

Member

Ohio State Bar Association

Member

Columbus Bar Association

Member

Society for Human Resource Management, Ohio Chapter

Member

National Public Employer Labor Relations Association

Member

Illinois Public Employer Labor Relations Association

Member

Ohio Public Employer Labor Relations Association

Recognition

Fellow

College of Labor and Employment Lawyers

Inducted 2011

Awarded, AV Preeminent® Peer Review Rating

Martindale-Hubbell

Named, International Who's Who of Management Labour and Employment Lawyers

Who's Who Legal

2012 and 2013

Named, Management Labour and Employment

Who's Who Legal

2010 and 2011

Books & Book Chapters

  • Employment Discrimination Treatise, Illinois Institute of Continuing Legal Education (IICLE), Employment Discrimination in the Public Sector, Chapter Co-Author, 2012

Speaking Engagements

The Art of Global Restructuring and Global Workforce Integration

The 2016 Executive Employer® Conference

May 5, 2016

The Law and Art of Labor Negotiations

IncreMental Advantage Executive Education Series on Negotiations Webinar - Business Development Academy

June 2011

Labor and Employment Issues and Strategies in M&A Due Diligence

IncreMental Advantage Mergers and Acquisitions Due Diligence Conference, San Francisco, CA

April 2007

Due Diligence: Going in With Your Eyes Wide Open and Knowing Where to Look

5th Annual Winter Conference & Awards Program - M&A Advisors, New York, NY

December 2006

Labor & Employment Law Due Diligence

IncreMental Advantage Mergers & Acquisitions Due Diligence Conference, New York, NY

October 2006

The Deal-Maker’s Guide to Labor & Employment Issues in Business Restructuring

8th Annual Summer Conference on Best Practices in M&A - Alliance of Merger & Acquisition Advisors (AMAA), Chicago, IL

June 2006

Impact of Sarbanes-Oxley on Deal Makers and Regulatory Issues in Labor & Employment Due Diligence

Summer Conference - M&A Advisors, Chicago, IL

June 2006

Education

  • J.D., Harvard Law School, 1979
  • B.A., Knox College, 1975

Bar Admission

Ohio
Illinois

Courts

  • U.S. Court of Appeals, 7th Circuit
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, 8th Circuit
  • Ohio Supreme Court
  • Illinois Supreme Court
  • U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois
  • U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Arkansas
  • U.S. District Court, Western District of Arkansas
  • U.S. District Court, Northern District of Indiana