Robyn C. Crowther

Crowther, co-managing partner of Steptoe’s Los Angeles office, specializes in commercial, employment, copyright and trademark litigation.

Since 2018 she has first-chaired five arbitration and trial proceedings: in each, she led all-women teams in which she was the only repeat attorney, an arrangement that allowed her to assemble five different groups of women to handle substantive civil litigation.

Running the shop during a pandemic when all are working remotely has been interesting, Crowther said. “It has been a challenge, with some rewards. We brought in some new people, and we had to on-board them without meeting them in person. One is still in Colorado. By now I’ve had a couple of outdoor meetings with some.”

She’s working with Public Counsel Law Center and Equal Rights Advocates to reverse an adverse trial court ruling in a campus sexual assault case in which the female victim was excluded from a proceeding to set aside findings against the perpetrator. Roe v. Doe, A161546 (1st DCA, filed April 15, 2021).

“We’re proud of the way our appellate brief turned out,” Crowther said. “I hope the Court of Appeal takes a hard look at this.”

In late 2019, when the lead partner faced a medical emergency, Crowther was asked to step in to first chair a jury trial in a personal injury case that had been pending for four years. Jimenez v. Badio and Servisair Americas Inc., BC595777 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed Sept. 29, 2015).

The plaintiff originally sought $25 million in damages over an accident at Los Angeles International Airport; Crowther represented the airline defendant where the client’s vicarious liability for an employee’s conduct as well as the employee’s negligence were not contested. In the weeks following her assignment to the case, she speedily prepared for a 15-day jury trial involving more than 20 witnesses, including more than 10 experts.

She prepped herself and her team well enough that at trial, one plaintiff asked to dismiss her loss of consortium claim rather than continue to undergo a full cross-examination by one of Crowther’s trial associates. The jury awarded $2.7 million to the lead plaintiff, well below the $4.9 million settlement demand made before trial.

“I hadn’t done a personal injury trial before,” she said. “But the skills of being a trial lawyer translate well across many fields of law. This was a win, though when you’re competitive, you hate when a verdict goes against you at all. The client was satisfied.”

— John Roemer