Robert M. Waxman

Robert M. Waxman is a Partner in the Litigation Department.

Robert’s area of practice include general business, commercial and information technology litigation. More specifically, breach of fiduciary relationships, partnership and shareholder disputes, class action litigation, unfair competition and misappropriation of trade secrets, employment disputes, RICO litigation, insurance coverage and bad faith disputes.  He has been retained and testified as an expert witness in bad faith insurance dispute involving advertising injury and copyright infringement issues.  He has also been retained and testified as an expert witness in law partnership dissolution case, and in limited liability company breach of managing member fiduciary duty dispute. 

• Reversed Anti-SLAPP Judgment and made new law with respect to false advertising allegations and commercial speech statutory exception.
• Tried and obtained judgment featured in the Los Angeles Daily Journal for professional law corporation and its shareholders who were sued for millions of dollars in damages and injunctive relief by one of the founding shareholders. The complaining shareholder filed nineteen separate claims for relief, including RICO, breach of fiduciary duty and accounting fraud, interference with business and wrongful termination.  The plaintiff lost, with the law corporation obtaining judicial confirmation that grounds existed to expel the complaining shareholder for cause, along with an award of attorneys' fees and costs against the plaintiff for $625,000.
• Tried and obtained judgment rejecting lawyer’s claim that he was a law partner despite partner level compensation, Martindale listings, advertisements and state bar filings made by the firm identifying that individual as a partner; and then holding that the complainant was not entitled to share in seven figure plus work-in-progress even though his written agreement with firm provided otherwise.
• Obtained substantial eight figure recovery for major corporate client against a multi-national foreign corporation, its related entities and controlling shareholder in fraud and breach of contract litigation.
• Tried and obtained judgment for purchaser of a multi-million dollar grand penthouse unit in litigation against a major real estate development company for negligent misrepresentation and breach of contract relating to the buildable square footage and HVAC system at the property notwithstanding multi-page disclaimers and disclosures to the contrary.
• Tried and prevailed on two different contempt of court citations, including entry of a contempt judgment sentencing the contemptuous defendant to federal incarceration and imposing substantial monetary fines against him.
• Successfully opposed class certification of 7,000 person wage/hour and commission claims class through class counsel’s withdrawal with prejudice of motion for class certification. Successfully litigated other class action wage/hour case as well as WARN Act class action lawsuit for corporate employers who ultimately settled on extremely favorable terms.

Honors & Recognitions

Top Rated Lawyer, The National Law Journal, 2020

American Jurisprudence Award for Conflicts of Law

AV® Preeminent™ rating, Martindale-Hubbell

Top Lawyer, Pasadena Magazine, 2011 & 2012

Southern California’s Top Rated Lawyers, American Lawyer Media, 2012

Community & Professional

Law Review: UCLA Alaska Law Review, Editor-in-Chief

Client Alerts

Publications

Speaking Engagements

Demetriades v. Yelp, Inc., 228 Cal. App. 4th 294 (2014), rev. den’d (reversing Anti-SLAPP judgment against ECJ client and making new law with respect to commercial speech)

Noble Systems Corp. v. Alorica Central LLC., et. al., 543 F.3d 978 (8th Cir. 2008) (affirming defense judgment for ECJ client sued for $2MM+ in UCC priority / fraud / interference with contract and conversion case)

CRST Van Expedited, Inc. v. Werner Enterprises, 479 F. 3d 1099 (9th Cir. 2007) (affirming judgment for attorneys’ fees awarded to ECJ after court found that misappropriation of trade secret claim had been filed and prosecuted by other side in bad faith)