Robert W. Hayes has tried over 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 involving demands for over $10 million in damages. He has served as lead counsel in multiple appeals, including those in which published opinions were issued by the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Third, Fourth and Eighth Circuits and the Supreme Courts of Pennsylvania, Delaware, West Virginia, Iowa, and Alabama.
Bob has been lead counsel in complex matters involving securities and common law fraud, patent, trademark and copyright infringement, antitrust, unfair competition, and breach of contract claims. This experience includes 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 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 involving exposure to lead, carbon monoxide and volatile organics 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 multi-district and multi-party litigation arising of high rise office building, apartment, and residential fires, passenger train derailments and commercial and military aircraft crashes.
Bob has significant experience in defending class actions both in federal and state court. He 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.