Education: Tufts University, B.A., cum laude, History and Political Science; New York University School of Law, J.D.
Bar Admission: New York, Massachusetts, United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, United States District Court for the District of Columbia, and various federal courts
Bert H. Ware is a seasoned attorney, workplace investigator, trainer, and employment-law advisor with more than 40 years of experience advising employers, senior leaders, human resources professionals, and organizations on complex workplace matters. He supports EPT Legal’s clients in conducting impartial workplace investigations, performing workplace and culture reviews, assessing employment-law risk, and developing practical strategies to address sensitive personnel, compliance, and organizational-risk issues.
Bert has extensive experience handling workplace investigations involving allegations of discrimination, harassment, retaliation (including whistleblower claims), bullying, hostile work environment, threats of violence, assault, theft, fraud, embezzlement, conflicts of interest, policy violations, performance concerns, and other workplace misconduct. His work also includes civil-rights reviews, employment-law audits, dispute resolution, and crisis and reputational-risk management, as well as counseling on senior executive employment matters, reductions in force, separations, performance management, and the protection of confidential information and intellectual property.
In addition to his investigative work, Bert advises on workplace policies and practices, employee relations, background screening, onboarding, and co-employment and joint-employment risk. He has designed and delivered training programs for C-suite executives, senior managers, human resources professionals, corporate security personnel, investigative teams, and in-house counsel on preventing and addressing workplace misconduct, as well as on effective investigative techniques and protocols.
Prior to joining EPT Legal, Bert served for approximately 20 years as Senior Vice President and Assistant General Counsel at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and its predecessor institutions, including FleetBoston Financial Corporation and Fleet Financial Group. In that role, he managed employment litigation across the enterprise and advised senior leadership across business, legal, human resources, compliance, corporate security, and operations functions on complex employment matters.
His in-house experience included oversight of single-plaintiff, multi-party, and class-based employment litigation in federal and state courts; proceedings before the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, and other fair employment practice agencies; and arbitrations before AAA and FINRA. He also handled mediations, conciliations, settlement negotiations, and internal investigations, and developed quantitative risk-management and litigation triage frameworks to support leadership decision-making.
Bert has also practiced employment law in private practice at several prominent firms, including Jackson Lewis P.C. (Boston), Bressler, Amery & Ross, P.C. (New York), Mintz Levin (Boston), and LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae, L.L.P. (New York), where his work included management-side counseling, litigation, workplace investigations, and civil-rights and DEI-related advising.
Bert is admitted to practice in New York and Massachusetts, as well as before multiple federal courts. He is a member of the Association of Workplace Investigators, the Society for Human Resource Management, the American Bar Association, the Boston Bar Association, the Massachusetts Bar Association, and the Federal Bar Association. He is a former Advisory Board member of the American Employment Law Council and has served as a panelist and moderator for the American Bar Association, the National Association of Minority and Women Owned Law Firms, and the Practicing Law Institute.
Bert is active in civic and community organizations and serves as a board member and ethics officer of Acton-Boxborough Community Compass. He also participates in Building Bridges Through Partnership, a collaborative network of Greater Boston’s Black and Jewish communities focused on addressing racism and antisemitism, and previously served as Chair of the Parents’ Committee on Community & Equity at Concord Academy.