Robert L. Clayton

Biography

Robert L. Clayton focuses his practice in the areas of labor management relations, employment, sports, and education law. Mr. Clayton’s labor management practice focuses on representing corporations and public institutions in labor and employment litigation and in federal administrative proceedings. He is also a former trial attorney with the National Labor Relations Board. Mr. Clayton has over 30 years experience in handling representation in NLRB unfair labor practice cases, arbitrations, and collective bargaining negotiations in the healthcare, communications, transportation, construction, printing, gas utility, gaming and sports industries. His counseling experience has involved advising employers on union avoidance strategies, strike management plans, and union corporate campaign tactics. He also has substantial experience in handling EEOC discrimination cases.

His education practice concentrates on providing counsel to universities and secondary school districts on crisis management, labor relations, employment litigation, Title IV, VI, and IX, and NCAA compliance matters.  Mr. Clayton has substantial experience conducting Title IX audits and providing NCAA and EEO compliance training for athletic departments.  He is also experienced in admissions policies, campus security, and hiring diversity risk management.

In 2004, Mr. Clayton was named the National Bar Association’s Sports & Entertainment Lawyer of the Year. In his sports law practice, he served as counsel to the National Basketball Players Association and National Football League Players Association. He has represented NCAA Division I universities in cases before the NCAA Committee on Infractions and Appeals Committee as lead counsel and has advised major universities across the country on Title IX gender equity compliance. In addition, Mr. Clayton provides labor audit and governmental relations advice in professional sports franchise acquisition.  He provides counsel to sports marketing firms in the negotiation of broadcasting, licensing and corporate sponsorship agreements.

Prior to joining Gonzalez Saggio & Harlan, Mr. Clayton was a partner with such large law firms as Jackson Lewis and Littler Mendelson. He is a former Associate Dean and Lecturer at Tulane Law School, where he taught employment rights, international labor law, and amateur sports law.  Mr. Clayton was a world class All-Ivy and All-ICAAAA track performer in the 880 yard run and Captain of the 1972-73 Track Team at Harvard University.  He is a member of the Board of Directors of The Black Ice Project and the St. Albans Alumni Association and served as an inaugural member of the New Orleans Bowl Committee.  Mr. Clayton is a graduate of St. Albans School (Washington D.C.).

Mr. Clayton is a regular contributor to the University Business, Athletic Business, and Legal Issues in College Athletics and Sports Litigation Alert and has been a contributing editor to The Developing Labor Law.  He is frequently quoted in major newspapers across the country, including USA Today, The Baltimore Sun, The Dallas Morning News, and The Times-Picayune, on a wide range of labor and sports law issues.  Mr. Clayton is a nationally-recognized lecturer on diversity in higher education and is a frequent speaker at the annual conferences of the American Bar Association, National Bar Association, National Association of College and University Attorneys, National Employment Law Council, National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics, and Eastern College Athletic Conference.

Mr. Clayton earned his J.D. at George Washington University National Law Center and an A.B. in Social Relations from Harvard University.  He is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia, Louisiana, and Florida; the United States District Courts for the District of Columbia and for the Eastern, Middle, and Western Districts of Louisiana; the Supreme Courts of Louisiana and Florida, and the United States Courts of Appeals for the Fifth and District of Columbia Circuits.

Education & Bar Admissions

Education

• George Washington University National Law Center, J.D.
• Harvard University, A.B., Social Relations

Bar Admissions

• District of Columbia
• Florida
• Louisiana
• U.S. District Court, District of Columbia
• U.S. District Court, Eastern, Middle, and Western Districts of Louisiana
• Florida Supreme Court
• Louisiana Supreme Court
• U.S. Courts of Appeals, Fifth and District of Columbia Circuits

In the News

• 4/23/2012 – Robert Clayton participated in “Advice from the Pros” – hosted by Morgan State University
• 12/1/2011 - GSH Expands Washington DC Office with addition of Robert Clayton