Bob DeRose

About Bob DeRose

PARTNER

Bob DeRose is Partner-in-Charge of Barkan Meizlish DeRose Cox, LLP's Workplace Litigation Department, and its former managing partner. His practice focused on handling wage & hour/overtime issues, employment matters, and consumer claims. Mr. DeRose is a native of Western Pennsylvania and a 1988 graduate of Washington and Jefferson College with a degree in Economics. He is a 1991 graduate of the University of Dayton School of Law, where he was active in workers' rights issues.

After graduating from UD School of Law and a brief practice in Dayton , Ohio, Attorney DeRose and his wife Amy moved to Columbus in 1994 when he joined the firm, then called Barkan+Neff, Co, L.P.A. As a new associate at Barkan+Neff, he focused on representing injured workers throughout Ohio. In 2005, Attorney DeRose handled an overtime issue for 10,000 current and former employees of Lowes in Ohio and Pennsylvania and secured a settlement for them. Since then, Bob has focused on handling wage and hour issues on behalf of employees in Ohio and around the country. Bob has handled case to jury verdict and argued before the state and federal courts, including arguing twice before the Ohio Supreme Court, and multiple federal court of appeals arguments in the six, tenth and seventh circuits. He is admitted and filed before the United States Supreme Court. Attorney DeRose and the firm have recovered over $100 million dollars in wages for employees.

Attorney DeRose and Amy have two children, a son Nick and a daughter Maddie. Nick is a 2019 graduate of Ohio University where he attended college on a ROTC scholarship where he was a member of the Bobcat Battalion. Nick is currently serving as a First Lieutenant at Fort Cavasos, in Kileen Texas. He is a platoon leader with the First Cavalry Division's Air Defense Artillery “D” Battery. Maddie is a recent high school graduate where she was the class salutatorian. She will attend the Ohio State University in the fall and study physics with a desire to become a radiation oncologist.

Throughout his career, Attorney DeRose has been involved in the Westerville, Ohio community where he coached and was on the board of the Junior Football League of Westerville, as well as serving on the Genoa Township Board of Zoning Appeals.

Attorney DeRose is the former President of the Ohio Association for Justice and the former president of the Workers Injury Law and Advocacy Group (WILG), a national organization of lawyers based in Washington, D.C. committed exclusively to representing workers' and their families. Mr. DeRose is a former Board member of the Ohio Legal Assistance Foundation and the Diane Crawford Cervical Cancer Foundation.

Attorney DeRose is a frequent lecturer and author on Fair Labor Standards Act and Union Side Labor topics. He was an adjunct faculty member at Capital University Law School Graduate Program and a guest lecturer at the Ohio State University Fisher College of Business, University of Arkansas School of Law, the University of Dayton School of Law, and the Ohio Northern University Claude W. Pettit School of Law. He was a co-author of 2005-2006 Ohio Workers' Compensation Law, a practice guide, published by the West Group. Attorney DeRose is an editing author to the American Bar Association's treatise; The Fair Labor Standards Act.

Attorney DeRose has been named one of the Best Lawyers in America since 2011 and a Top 100 Trial Lawyer in Ohio since 2007. He has been listed as an Ohio Super Lawyer by Cincinnati Magazine since 2005. He is listed as one of the Top 50 lawyers in Columbus, Ohio by Columbus CEO Magazine since 2012. Attorney DeRose is a member of the prestigious Melvin Belli Society, a Fellow of the Ohio State Bar Foundation, and a Fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers. Voted Columbus' Lawyer of the Year in Employment Law by U.S. News and World Report in 2022 and 2023.

Attorney DeRose continues the private practice of law at Barkan Meizlish DeRose Cox, LLP representing victims of wage theft throughout Ohio, Pennsylvania, and the nation.