Robert M. Waxman

Robert M. Waxman is a Partner and Chair of Insurance Coverage and Recovery Department.

Robert M. Waxman serves as the Partner and Chair of the Insurance Coverage and Recovery Department, bringing extensive expertise in corporate governance and partnership disputes, employment disputes, business and real estate matters, as well as insurance coverage and recovery matters. Bob also has substantial experience in defending civil sexual trafficking and sexual misconduct cases.

INSURANCE COVERAGE AND RECOVERY

Bob’s insurance practice includes the representation of numerous persons and corporations in insurance coverage disputes with global insurance carriers. Bob has also testified as an expert for an insurer in an insurance bad faith lawsuit and served as coverage and trial counsel for another international insurance carrier.

Bob’s insurance related representative matters include:

The handling of an insurance coverage dispute for a property management company and its principal owner/chief executive who were sued for breach of contract, fraud and related torts in a multi-million dollar lawsuit brought by luxury condominium owners against the property management company, as well as its owner/chief executive. The plaintiffs alleged substantial environmental damage, physical injury and emotional distress. Bob secured primary and excess insurance coverage and then overcame significant environmental policy exclusions as well as “appointed” defense counsel’s myopic analysis as to damage(s) exposure to convince the primary and excess carriers to settle the entire lawsuit for their policy limits.

Bob represented a mid-sized accounting firm in a coverage dispute with its national malpractice carrier with respect to significant malpractice and breach of fiduciary duty claims being asserted against the accounting firm by a public entity. Bob was able to force the insurance carrier to pay its policy limits to settle the case.

Bob also represented a public entity in an insurance coverage dispute with its national insurance carrier that initially denied coverage for multi-million dollar landslide related lawsuits filed against the public entity. Bob forced the insurer to reverse course and then defend the public entity despite broadly worded subsistence exclusions in the public entity’s insurance policies.

BUSINESS, REAL ESTATE AND EMPLOYMENT LITIGATION

Bob’s litigation practice includes corporate governance and partnership disputes, general business, employment, commercial, and real estate litigation. Bob has published articles related to partnership disputes and has testified as an expert in a law partnership dissolution case as well as a limited liability company breach of managing member fiduciary duties.

Bob’s representative corporate governance and partnership disputes, general business, real estate and employment litigation matters include:

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 the 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 claimants.

Obtained summary judgment for a major automobile manufacturer that was sued for sexual harassment, gender and age discrimination, as well as wrongful termination.

CIVIL SEXUAL TRAFFICKING AND SEXUAL MISCONDUCT MATTERS

Bob has represented high net worth individuals facing up to eight-figure civil cases for alleged sexual trafficking and/or sexual misconduct. Bob recently published an article dealing with this practice area in the Los Angeles Daily Journal Daily Journal entitled, “When Couts Unmask Pseudonymous Litigants In Sexual Misconduct Cases,” which received unsolicited acclaim from a Los Angeles Superior Court judge.

Bob’s representative matters include the representation of a very successful business executive who was facing a civil lawsuit for serious alleged non-consensual sex acts, as well as a contemporaneous investigation by law enforcement. Bob was able to force the plaintiff to substitute her real name for the Jane Doe pseudonym that she sued under, and ultimately to settle for pennies on the dollar. Bob was also able to obtain a court order sealing the entire civil suit and simultaneously convince law enforcement to drop the criminal investigation.

Honors & Recognitions

Nominated by Sr. In-House Counsel for Global Automobile Manufacturer as One of its Three Most Outstanding Outside Lawyers Over the Immediately Preceding Three Years and Recognized by Thomson Reuters' Stand-out Lawyers, 2024, 2025, 2026

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

Thomson Reuters' Stand-out Lawyers, 2024, 2025, 2026

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)