David Robert Strives to Become the Expert You Need at Allstate

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If there is a need for expertise, David Robert will strive to become the expert. The managing counsel of IP and open source software at Allstate remembers wanting to better connect with his father growing up. His father was an avid tennis player; Robert learned to play so he could spend time with his dad.

“Whatever I do, I tend to approach it with a perfectionist mindset,” Robert admits. “I didn’t just get good enough to play with my dad. I wound up becoming a world-ranked junior player.”

When Allstate needed an open-source software expert, Robert did what he’s done countless times before. He didn’t just get a rough idea—he dug deep.

A Heavy Pivot

Robert came to Allstate in 2020, but his career began in an entirely different industry as an aerospace chemist for a Department of Defense servicing group. The chemist was at the forefront of developing experimental aerospace coatings for spacecraft and satellites.

The work wasn’t just deeply scientific; it also required contractual communication with stakeholders. That’s where Robert found a passion for contract drafting, and realized his talent for attention to detail, writing, and communication might make him an ideal candidate for a pivot to law.

“My focus is enabling our people to better serve our customers; this includes protecting Allstate’s innovations and mitigating risk.”

David Robert

Patent law allowed Robert to leverage his technical background and passion for innovation, but his curiosity and enthusiasm for learning soon expanded his interests to encompass more than strict patent work.

To try and understand Robert’s continual curiosity, it’s important to understand how wide his worldview already was. The son of missionaries, Robert was born and raised in Papua New Guinea (PNG). After the age of twelve, he never lived with his parents again, instead navigating life in boarding school via various hostel parents and hostels before heading off to college in the US.

“You either sink or swim in those situations,” Robert remembers. “You either learn to appreciate the change or you will fold under the pressure. It’s such incredible training for your future but you don’t even realize it.”

But Robert always remembered his earliest years, stopping through Singapore whenever he traveled with his parents outside of PNG. It struck such a chord with him that he moved there for a year to practice at the firm Spruson & Ferguson.

So when you consider the appetite of Robert’s curious mind, it’s important to remember the preexisting breadth of his worldview.

Transforming the Insurance Industry

At Allstate, Robert says his mission is to continue driving an organization regularly cited as one of the most innovative companies to continue transforming the insurance industry.

“There are incredible people here leading this transformation in our industry,” the lawyer explains. “My focus is enabling our people to better serve our customers; this includes protecting Allstate’s innovations and mitigating risk.”

Robert accomplishes this continually evolving goal through developing patent, trademark, and copyright strategies; counseling on brand development; executing malicious domain name takedowns; and ensuring responsible use of open-source software. The attorney also wants to empower those outside the law department to spot potential issues relating to IP and open source software themselves. He says equipping the rest of the business with knowledge helps them better understand the benefits as well as the risks, and how best to get to their end goals.

“I thrive in and enjoy an educational environment where I am learning from the business, and in turn empowering the business to think through issues, and to know when they need to tag me in on an issue,” Robert says. “I value being that trusted partner to drive innovation here.”

As a trusted partner, Robert continually works to shield the company from risk while still understanding that no company remains in the Fortune 100 without a healthy appetite for intelligent risk.

And when the business has a new need? Robert says he will learn as much as he can, as quickly as he can. That mentality has aided his transformation into a true generalist (albeit with specialties in IP, open source software, and commercial law) who can provide support in so many areas outside of strict patent law.

Unshakeable Faith

Robert has greatly benefited from continually working on and supporting cutting-edge technology, but there is something far more foundational at his core that has allowed him to work so fluidly across so many different industries and disciplines.

The attorney may have left home at an early age, but Robert says his parents modeled an unshakeable faith, one that eventually became his own. That faith has guided him, and now his family as well.

“Faith is the biggest part of my and my family’s life,” the attorney explains. “My parents exemplified that for me.”

That family has relocated to Singapore, back to the States, and then from Illinois to half a country away in Florida. In so many ways, Robert is providing his children with the kind of worldview that he grew up with: grounded in faith, and eternally curious about the world around them.

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