Arent Fox Adds Labor & Employment Partner

San Francisco, CA — Arent Fox LLP is pleased to announce the addition of highly-regarded San Francisco-based labor partner Rob Carrol to the firm’s Labor & Employment practice and newly launched Alcohol Beverage team. Mr. Carrol’s labor practice services businesses of all sizes, from Fortune 200 companies to Silicon Valley startups, in the agriculture, food, manufacturing, and solid waste disposal sectors. In Mr. Carrol's global alcohol beverage practice, he represents wine, craft beer, and spirits producers, importers, and distributors. 
 
“Rob is a key name in the alcohol beverage industry and will be a great resource to suppliers, distributors, and retailers located in the heart of California’s wine and craft beer industries and beyond,” said California Managing Partner Robert C. O’Brien. “Additionally, Rob’s career-long experience in labor and employment law representing clients all over California, nationally, and internationally, will be invaluable to our clients and make him a key addition to Arent Fox.”
 
Mr. Carrol was previously the chair of Nixon Peabody’s Western US Labor and Employment and Global Beverage Alcohol teams. Earlier this month, Arent Fox announced the launch of a new Alcohol Beverage group, along with the addition of counsel Michael T. Kelly, underscoring the firm’s comprehensive work for leading alcohol beverage manufacturers, distributors, importers, and retailers on important legal issues at the federal, state, and international levels.
 
Mr. Carrol counsels clients on a wide range of labor and employment matters, including solutions to operational issues for both non-union and union companies and collective bargaining, arbitration, and defense of complex litigation in state and federal courts and various federal and state administrative agencies, such as the federal National Labor Relations Board, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), and California's Agricultural Labor Relations Board, Department of Fair Employment and Housing, and Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC). 
 
Mr. Carrol has achieved noteworthy recent wins in the defense of large-scale wage-hour and other labor-related class actions, including the denial of class certification petitions filed in the US District and California Superior Courts in which the plaintiffs sought $176 million and $58 million in unpaid wages and penalties, respectively.
 
Arent Fox has one of the leading Alcohol Beverage practices in the nation and globally, with a team of more than 20 attorneys advising manufacturers, distributors, importers, and retailers, as well as private equity and other substantial investors in the industry. With more than 35 attorneys, Arent Fox’s Labor & Employment practice helps public and private companies, nonprofits, and international corporations avoid and solve legal workplace problems across a broad range of industries.