Areas of Expertise
ERISA/Employee Benefits, Health Care, Labor and Employment Law
Courses
Contract Drafting
Biography
Robert M. Lewis, Jr. has been the Regional Counsel for ERISA for the Office of the Solicitor, U.S. Department of Labor, since May 2008, managing virtually all the employee benefits trial litigation filed by the Department and advising on a myriad of litigation, regulatory and enforcement issues arising in the Southeastern U.S., including Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Lewis joined the office June 2006 as a trial attorney, after having served as an associate and partner in private practice for ten years, where he practiced employment law, health care law, and complex business litigation and transactional work. He is a four-time recipient of the Secretary of Labor’s Exceptional Achievement Award and has been named a Rising Star in Labor and Employment Law.
Lewis has lectured and written extensively on employment, health law, ethics and employee benefits issues local, state and national bar associations and other organizations. His most recent speaking and teaching activities have focused on ERISA, ERISA litigation, health care reform, diversity and inclusion, and ethics and professionalism issues.
From 2008-11, he was a Government Fellow of the Employee Benefits Committee (“EBC”) of the American Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Law Section. He was chosen as one of 20 participants in the American Bar Association’s Section of Labor and Employment Law Leadership Development Program, Class of 2010. He was a contributor to the 2010, 2011, and 2012 civil procedure reports and 2013 and 2014 preemption reports for the EBC’s midwinter meetings, and for the civil procedure chapter in 2011 and preemption chapter in 2013 and 2014 of the annual supplements of Employee Benefits Law published by the American Bar Association’s Section of Labor and Employment Law and BNA Books. He is currently co-chair of the ABA’s Labor and Employment Law Section Taskforce on the Government Fellowship Program and co-chair of the EBC’s preemption subcommittee.
Lewis has served on the board of directors of the Atlanta Bar Association (for which he also currently serves as chair of the Personnel Committee) since 2010 and on the executive committee since 2012. He has also served board of directors of the Atlanta Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Law Section since 2012.
He served as president of Stonewall Bar Association of Georgia from 2011-12, and has served on the Stonewall board since 2009. He is the current vice-chair and chair-elect, and former treasurer and secretary, of the State Bar of Georgia’s Labor and Employment Law Section. Further, he is the immediate past co-chair of the Multi-Bar Leadership Council in Atlanta, a coalition of bar associations committed to working collaboratively and promoting diversity, inclusion, and coalition building within the legal profession. In 2013, Mr. Lewis was appointed to the State Bar of Georgia’s Committee to Promote Inclusion in the Profession; in 2014, he was appointed co-chair. In 2014, he was also appointed to the State Bar’s Committee on Professionalism.
Robert Lewis is a Lifetime and Sustaining Fellow of the American Bar Association Foundation. In addition, he is a member of the State Bar of Georgia (Employment and Labor Law, Employee Benefits and Government Attorneys Sections); the American Bar Association (Employment and Labor Law Section, Employee Benefits Section); the Lawyers Club of Atlanta; and the Old War Horse Lawyers Club. He is admitted to the bars of the U.S. Supreme Court, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals and the Northern and Middle Districts of Georgia.
In 2011, Lewis received the Exceptional Volunteer Service Award from the Secretary of Labor for the U.S. Department of Labor “in recognition of outstanding volunteer community service of a sustained, direct and consequential nature.” In 2013, he was honored with the Commitment to Equality Award by the State Bar of Georgia. He has twice received the Distinguished Service Award from the Atlanta Bar Association: once in 2011 and again in 2013.
He currently serves on the Emory College Alumni Board and the President’s Advisory Council of Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia.