Rob is Associate General Counsel at Chelsea Football Club.
Rob joined the Club in 2015, having trained and qualified at a top tier international sports law practice in London. He has since been quickly promoted through to his current role, where he has responsibility for the day-to-day management of the Club’s Legal team (a team that recently won In-House Legal Team of the Year), reporting to the General Counsel.
During his time at the Club, Rob has led and assisted on a number of record-breaking and award-winning projects, most notably including its technical partnership agreement with Nike, the sanctions imposed on the Club by the various governments in 2022 and the subsequent sale to the consortium led by Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital, and the purchase of the midfielder Enzo Fernandez from Benfica in January 2023 for a British record transfer fee.
Rob has also played a very active role in the development of women’s football, both at a club and league-wide level, and since February 2021 has been a member of The Football Association’s Legal Advisory Group for the Women’s Super League and Women’s Championship.
Rob prides himself on his strategic and commercial acumen. His enthusiasm, initiative and commitment regularly afford him the opportunity to work in areas outside the typical scope of a lawyer or legal team – indeed Rob has successfully delivered on a wide range of strategic initiatives, process improvements and often leads on both commercial and football negotiations, most recently in relation to player recruitment at academy and emerging talent levels.
From a leadership perspective, Rob is passionate about high-performance culture. He has demonstrated a clear commitment to attracting and developing talent across the Club – most recently, redesigning his team’s recruitment process to ensure new roles reach both the right breadth and depth of candidates. He has also played an integral role in implementing a number of initiatives to ensure new and existing team members can fulfil their potential at the Club. Rob has repeatedly received praise for the time and effort he invests in the development of team members. At a wider-Club level, Rob has worked as part of the Chelsea FC’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Group to champion and embed EDI values throughout all of the Club’s work and processes.
Rob has qualifications in Leadership and Management, and in February 2021 passed the California Bar Exam.
