Robert W. Frankhouser

Rob is a former human resources executive and management labor and employment lawyer with nearly two decades of experience at an S&P 500 company.  He now puts that corporate experience to work for employees in all facets of employment law practice, with a particular emphasis on wage and hour matters involving misclassification of independent contractors, employees misclassified as exempt from overtime, and failure to pay overtime.  

Starting his career as a human resources generalist, Rob transitioned to managing labor and employee relations matters while earning his law degree and an MBA at Duquesne University.  Before leaving to form GardnerFrankhouser, Rob was Senior Counsel & Vice President, Employee Relations for one of the nation’s leading energy companies.  In this role, Rob supervised a staff of 7 professionals and, among other responsibilities, oversaw the company’s employee relations and employment litigation functions, including managing the defense of wage and hour class actions.

In addition to managing litigation in the state and federal courts of Pennsylvania and West Virginia, Rob has managed employment-related arbitrations and appeared before state and federal administrative agencies responsible for enforcement of anti-discrimination, harassment and overtime laws. His experience also includes conducting and supervising hundreds of internal investigations into alleged failure to pay overtime, discrimination and retaliation, fraud, theft of trade secrets and embezzlement.  

Rob was the principal architect of the company’s non-compete and non-solicitation provisions, which withstood judicial challenges to their validity and enforceability in state and federal courts.  He also was responsible for litigation strategy in cases brought against former employees for breach of non-competition covenants, theft of trade secrets and misuse of confidential information acquired during the course of their employment. 

Rob has extensive experience dealing with situations in which new employees are subject to non-competition agreements with former employers that allegedly prohibited them from going to work for the company. Rob’s approach in these cases is to craft and negotiate practical, business-oriented solutions that address the concerns of the former employer while allowing the new employee to continue working in his or her chosen occupation.

Rob's in-house experience affords him a valuable perspective when advising clients with an employment issue. He can distinguish a good claim from one that lacks merit; and he is particularly well qualified to conduct the due diligence necessary to advise a client on an appropriate course of action that is practical and realistic, enabling the client to achieve the best result possible.