• T:  847.277.2580
• C:  847.727.7927
• E: robins@fsblegal.com

• Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal
• Gottlieb & Schwartz

• Meridian Leasing Corp., Senior Vice President and General Counsel
• IDC Services Inc., Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary

• Illinois

• Harvard Law School, J.D. cum laude, 1980
• University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School, B.S. Econ. summa cum laude, 1977

Mr. Robins practices extensively in the general corporate and corporate governance, M&A, finance, intellectual property (including licensing, compliance and DMCA) and information technology/data security areas. As a result of his 31 years of experience in business practice, in both law firm and in-house environments, he appreciates the multifaceted nature of so many legal matters and is able to bring to bear expertise in all pertinent areas and recognize the need for complementary expertise.    

Mr. Robins has represented public and private clients of all sizes and in all industries ranging from Fortune 50 multinational firms to substantial private companies to start-ups to individual executives. His work has encompassed transactions of all sizes.

Representative transactions include business acquisitions, shareholder buy/sell agreements bank and similar financing, software licenses and computer/telecom hardware procurements, joint ventures, equipment and real estate leases, patent licenses, outsourcing and managed service contracts including data security/privacy matters, executive employment, separation and non-compete agreements and software-as-a-service and cloud transactions.

Mr. Robins’ experience in practice has been augmented by teaching as an adjunct law professor at Northwestern University School of Law and DePaul University College of Law, where he has taught Intellectual Property for Corporate Transactional Lawyers since 2005. He has also published extensively in a number of legal journals on topics ranging from corporate governance to technology procurement to equipment leasing to intellectual property and information technology due diligence in M&A transactions. His most recent article appears in the U. of California – Davis Business Law Journal and discusses the Dodd-Frank corporate governance provisions and their shortcomings.  Additionally, he has presented at a number of legal conferences, most recently at a June 2011 Arthur J. Gallagher program addressed to the fundamentals of information security and privacy for attorneys.

He is AV-rated in the Martindale-Hubbell Legal Directory

• Intellectual Property and Information Technology Due Diligence In Merger and Acquisition Transaction”, University of Illinois Journal of Law, Technology and Policy, Winter 2008-09, reprinted in West Publishing 2009 compendium of top intellectual property articles
• Dawn Following Darkness: An Outcome-Oriented Model for Corporate Governance, 48 Duquesne Law Review 33 (Winter 2010)
• Pay + Board Composition + Personal Behavior ≠Corporate Governance: In Search Of Conceptual Change; UC Davis Business Law Journal June 2011
• Expect Proxy Access to Survive Legal Challenges, The Conference Board, http://tcbblogs.org/governance/2010/10/06/guest-contributor-expect-proxy-access-to-survive-legal-challenges/  October 6, 2010
• Equipment Leasing (Matthew Bender Monograph released March 2000 and updated (w/co-author) September 2005)
• Cyberfinance: Raising Capital for the E-business (CCH Incorporated released June 2001)
• The Lawyer’s Guide to Acquiring a Medium-Sized Business (85 Illinois Bar Journal, September 1997)
• Making Nice: Help Your Client Nurture Good Relationships in Contract Negotiations  (7 Business Law Today, May/June 1998)
• Recipe for an Overdue Change: Why Corporate Lawyers Sometimes Need to Give Business Advice (12 Business Law Today July/August 2003)
• Computing the Contract: Getting that Tech Stuff in Writing (13 Business Law Today May/June 2004)