Robert L. Lawrence serves as Managing Partner of Kane Kessler, P.C. and Chair of its Corporate and Securities and General Business Practice Groups. With more than four decades of legal experience, he represents public and private companies, entrepreneurs, and investors in a wide array of complex corporate matters, including mergers and acquisitions, SPACs, joint ventures, licensing, and regulatory compliance. He counsels boards and special committees on fiduciary duties, takeovers, shareholder activism, and corporate governance. His industry experience spans healthcare, technology, aerospace, defense, manufacturing, and retail. Mr. Lawrence earned his B.A. with honors from Johns Hopkins University and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa; received his J.D. from Columbia Law School. He is selected as a NY Super Lawyer from 2013 to 2025; was elected to the American Bar Foundation. He has been selected as a Lawyer of Distinction, recognizing excellence in Corporate and Transactional Law.

I grew up in the suburbs of Memphis Tennessee, and like many people here in Charlotte, I relocated to North Carolina after completing my graduate studies. In law school I spent my time studying and working at my internships. Unlike most of my classmates, I attended law school after completing a postgraduate degree and entering the workforce. My postgraduate studies were focused in criminology and criminal justice, in which I largely focused on studying the generational transmission of domestic violence. I had every intention of then pursuing a career in law enforcement after law school, and spent my law school years working at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. I also interned at a well-established family law firm before receiving my law license. Following law school I decided to practice law for a period of time before planning on returning to the Bureau. It was during this time that I decided to commit to the practice of law. I worked at the firm I had interned at and another highly respected family law firm in Charlotte before opening Freedom Law | North Carolina. While I am grateful for my past opportunities and the experience I gained from my former positions, over the years I realized there is a disconnect between the traditional ways of practicing law and meeting today’s clients’ needs. If I were a client, I would not only want an attorney who is competent and able to handle my case, I would want an attorney that I could relate to and really feel like my story is important. That is what I hope to bring to my clients at Freedom Law | North Carolina. It is your life, your path, and your choice. I’m just here to help guide you through it.

Frank Laws leads the firm’s Litigation Department, a team of lawyers spanning a wide range of litigation experience and expertise. Focusing on finding business solutions to business problems, Mr. Laws has successfully litigated commercial cases throughout the country. Aside from the usual contract disputes and business torts, the subject matters have included cattle rustling, copyright infringement, the uniform commercial code, agricultural issues, government authority, insurance coverage disputes, and land use issues. Mr. Laws’ labor practice includes the full range of issues generated in the process of employment: administering, negotiating, and/or generally providing advice in the wide spectrum of the alphabet soup statutes enacted to govern employment, including ADEA, ADDA, Title VII, FLSA, FMLA, ERISA, Sarbanes-Oxley, 42 U.S.C. 1981, 1983, and 1985(3), USERRA, etc. Mr. Laws has litigated employment cases in a host of federal and state forums, individual claims, pattern and practice claims, and class actions.