Robyn C. Crowther

Crowther represents individuals, multinational corporations, municipalities and small businesses in complex litigation. The Boies Schiller Flexner partner represented Thomas Feigner, a top proprietary trader who had claims for unpaid incentive compensation and other wages at his former company, Wedbush Securities Inc. After a nine-day arbitration before the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Crowther and her team in February won a final award in favor of Feigner on the question of whether “risk holdbacks” are legal under California law and whether employers are liable for waiting period and other penalties. The award to Feigner included more than $250,000 in punitive damages against Wedbush and $125,000 in attorney fees. “The outcome vindicated his reputation,” she said of her client. “He felt very strongly about the way he’d been treated.” Dept. of Enforcement v. Wedbush Securities Inc., 2012033105901 (FINRA, filed May 27, 2016).

She recently served as lead counsel in several matters for Rancho Dominguez-based Evox Productions LLC, which creates comprehensive, detailed automotive photographs for use by advertising agencies. Its stock image database offers more than 1 million images, including 360-degree and virtual reality shots of cars.

“The company licenses the photos,” Crowther explained. In a recent case, defendant Kayak Software Corp. of Stamford, Connecticut, a travel metasearch and fare aggregator, had a license to use Evox’s photos on the internet but not on mobile apps — leading to litigation over Evox’s copyrights and other intellectual property. “The issues in the case were at the intersection of copyright law, artistic expression and technology,” Crowther said. “Kayak argued that because the photos accurately represented the autos they depicted, they weren’t sufficiently original to merit copyright protection.”

A second dispute in the case concerned the difference between websites and mobile apps. “The question was how they function differently as a matter of technology,” she said. “Evox is creating artistic expressions. Kayak is in the internet space. The issues are important to artists everywhere as technology makes it increasingly easy to appropriate images.”

In January 2017, Crowther secured an order of partial summary judgment in her client’s favor. The ruling established the validity of Evox’ copyrights; it also defeated Kayak’s summary judgment motion. After U.S. District Judge Philip S. Gutierrez of Los Angeles granted Crowther’s client a second summary judgment supporting Evox’s interpretation of the scope of its contract with Kayak, the case settled on the eve of trial “on terms very favorable to Evox,” Crowther said. Evox Productions LLC v. Kayak Software Corp., 2:15-cv-05053 (C.D. Cal., filed July 2, 2015).

“I learn about new businesses and never get bored,” Crowther said. “It keeps your brain exercised.”

— John Roemer