Victory on 3 week long-cause $20 million trade secret and unfair competition jury trial
Mar 17, 2022
OUTCOME: non-suit verdict for Jeffrey Cowan's client
The Los Angeles Auto Show retained trial lawyer Jeffrey Cowan for a long-cause trade secret and unfair competition lawsuit after medical issues kept its long-time lawyer, who had been handling the case... for 7 years, from proceeding. The case had over 26 witnesses and 900 exhibits. Discovery was closed.
In March 2022 – after 21 days of trial with witnesses testifying in person and via video – we won when the trial judge (Hon. J. Stephen Czuleger) granted our motion for a non-suit. Later, all jurors said they would have voted for Jeffrey Cowan’s clients if given the opportunity to do so.
Discrimination
$499,000 settlement for male victim of sexual harassment, disability discrimination and retaliation
Apr 28, 2016
OUTCOME: settled for $499,000 two months before trial and after beating a summary judgment motion
A Los Angeles employee of a national company doing business throughout California was a regular victim of sexual harassment (taunts) by his manager. After he filed a DFEH discrimination complaint, the... company conducted no investigation. Two months later, the employee suffered an on-the-job injury, was put on "light duty" restrictions, and asked for an accommodation. The company refused (even though its history was giving desk work to all similarly injured employees) and only let the employee remain on unpaid leave for over two years. The company declined a pre-litigation mediation. After we filed a lawsuit, we won multiple discovery motions, took depositions, and got statements from witnesses that confirmed many of the client's allegations (and proved that the managers who denied ever making sexual remarks that attacked my client were liars). After handily beating the company's summary judgment motion, the company settled at a mediation for $499,000.
Civil rights
$150,000 settlement for victim of housing discrimination and sexual battery
Feb 19, 2015
OUTCOME: $150,000 settlement
A woman renting a rural house near Santa Clarita in Los Angeles County found herself with a landlord who harassed her with unwanted romantic and sexual comments and overtures. The advances continued e...ven after the tenant made clear that they were unwelcome. The landlord then began stalking the woman – first showing up unannounced at her home and then at her workplace, where he ended up grabbing the woman’s buttock (sexual battery) and also squeezing her arm so forcefully that he bruised it.
Making a police report and having the cops warn the landlord to stay away did not resolve the problem, so the woman first got a restraining order and then retained Los Angeles housing discrimination and civil rights lawyer Jeffrey Cowan. After Jeffrey sent a demand letter, the landlord retaliated by raising the tenant’s rent. Eventually, Jeffrey persuaded the landlord to participate in a pre-litigation mediation – which resulted in a $150,000 pre-litigation settlement in February 2015. As a result, the client can now afford psychotherapy and work towards healing and moving on with her life.
Class action
$475,000 Class Action Settlement Against Trump National Golf Club
Aug 28, 2013
OUTCOME: $475,000 settlement
Santa Monica-based Los Angeles employment lawyer Jeffrey Cowan filed a class action lawsuit in 2008 against Donald Trump's Trump National Golf Club for not letting its employees take their meal and res...t breaks. After briefing a motion for class certification (see the news page on www.cowan-law.com), the lawsuit settled for $475,000.
Sexual harassment
$280,000 Settlement for Restaurant Employee Victim of Sexual Harassment and Retaliation
Jul 31, 2013
OUTCOME: $280,000 settlement two months before trial
A female Los Angeles employee in a fast food restaurant was sexually harassed with repeated requests for dates and sexual faces/gestures by a female co-worker. The restaurant’s general manager not only... ignored the victim’s complaints but also denied her requests to be transferred to another restaurant. The manager also let co-workers bring sexually shaped food to work, showed naked photos on his cell phone to his subordinates, and openly discussed customers whom he found sexually attractive. After a confrontation between the victim and the harassing lesbian in the bathroom one day, the restaurant manager called the police and told the sexual harassment victim that she was be arrested if she stayed. Afraid, the victim left, was not later allowed to talk to the owner, and had her final paycheck stolen by the rogue manager.
The victim hired Los Angeles employment lawyer Jeffrey Cowan to prosecute her sexual harassment claims. Mr. Cowan obtained all of the client’s employment records (which required filing an enforcement proceeding with the Department of Labor Standards and Enforcement), filed a complaint with the DFEH, and then sued the restaurant and the manager under California’s Fair Employment Housing Act for sexual harassment, retaliation and failing to prevent sexual harassment (plus other claims).
Class action
$2.4 Million settlement of wage and hour class action
Dec 14, 2011
OUTCOME: Court-approved settlement of $2,400,000
In December 2010, a federal judge approved a $2.4 million settlement of a class action lawsuit filed by Jeffrey Cowan (and co-counseld by Andrew Friedman of Helmer Friedman). The lawsuit alleged (in p...art) that a company operating in California had unlawfully classified thousands of workers as independent contractors and failed to pay them properly.
Litigation
$588,000 Judgment for Breach of Contract
Jan 01, 2009
OUTCOME: $588,000 judgment for Jeffrey Cowan's client
A New York finance company lent almost $475,000 to a family business in the Inland Empire region of California. The debtor corporation defaulted on its loans and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Fortuna...tely, the lender had required all of the family members who owned the business to personally guarantee the debts.
The finance company hired Los Angeles business trial lawyer Jeffrey Cowan of the Cowan Law Firm in Santa Monica, California to try to recover its money. Working with fellow trial lawyer and friend Mark Kassabian (of Buehler & Kassabian, LLP in Pasadena), Jeffrey Cowan sued the debtor family members in January 2009 in the Riverside County Superior Court for breach of contract.
Promptly thereafter, Jeffrey Cowan sought and obtained (1) a temporary restraining order freezing the defendants’ assets and thereafter (2) a pre-judgment writ of attachment. Jeffrey also propounded substantial discovery. Shortly thereafter, the defendants fired their lawyer and agreed to stipulate to having judgment entered against them for the full amount owed plus all pre-judgment interest and attorneys fees - for a total of about $588,000.
Of course, a judgment has value only if it can be enforced. After Jeffrey Cowan noticed a judgment debtor exam of the principal operative’s mother-in-law, the judgment debtors began making payments on the judgment.
Consumer protection
Victory Over Famed Los Angeles "Pit Bull" Law Firm
Jan 01, 2006
OUTCOME: Confidential six figure settlement for Jeffrey Cowan's client
A disbarred Midwestern lawyer turned Hollywood "producer" lied about his credentials and successes to trick a wealthy Northern California investor and a young Los Angeles actress into doing business wi...th him. The lawyer/con artist (who had been disbarred in two other states for stealing client money) was a smooth talker with a professional web site that he used to help sell his deceits. Because the investor and actress initially believed the disbarred lawyer's tall tales (e.g., he had produced Arnold Schwarzenegger movies and regularly dined with the "head" of Paramount Studios), they gave him an interest in a film they had produced while also investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in new projects. The disbarred lawyer then embezzled much of the money.
Eventually of course, the investor and actress discovered they were being cheated. When they told others in the entertainment community, the disbarred lawyer hired a Los Angeles entertainment law firm famous for its aggressive tactics. The "pit bull" law firm sued the defrauded investor and actress for defamation. They then hired The Cowan Law Firm - which promptly counter-sued for fraud and conversion (i.e., theft). Jeffrey Cowan and Ilana Makovoz rolled up their sleeves by interviewing witnesses and getting signed sworn statements and key documents - as well as a video of the disbarred lawyer's web site depicting some of his lies. At a court-ordered mediation in the summer of 2007, the lawsuit settled with the disbarred lawyer paying six figures to our clients.
Sexual harassment
National Chain Pays $435,000 to Sexual Harassment Victim
N/A
OUTCOME: $435,000 settlement
A Fortune 100 corporation doing business in Southern California had a policy prohibiting sexual harassment that existed only on paper. As a result, for years our client was subjected to crude sexual co...mments by not only her fellow employees (male and female) but also her managers. When our client reported this conduct - which she found highly offensive - to her supervisors and the company’s anonymous hotline, nothing happened. Once, our client was told by a manager whose fiance also was being sexually harassed that store politics kept him from doing anything. Our client also watched a colleague who complained about sexual harassment receive ridicule, scorn and retaliation from the manager in charge of her store.
When our client finally reported her sexual harassment to managers willing to act, the company not only failed to follow its own procedures but also failed to take the kind of remedial action that either California or federal law requires. Shockingly, the company’s district manager supervising the investigation knew little about how to investigate sexual harassment. This supervisor also rebuffed our client’s efforts to report all of the harassment that had been occurring because this manager assumed (incorrectly) that she had been told about all incidents of sexual harassment.
All of these actions caused our client to become depressed - to the point where she could not work or always care for her three children. Our client also started suffering panic attacks and became suicidal despite being on prescribed anti-depressants and seeing a psychologist. A forensic psychologist we hired confirmed after extensive testing that our client was “legitimately” depressed and not exaggerating or faking her symptoms.
We sued the company for sexual harassment (California Government Code § 12940(j)) and for failing to prevent sexual harassment (California Government Code § 12940(k)) after it rejected our offer to talk settlement without a lawsuit. After the company got the lawsuit transferred from court to an arbitrator (our client had signed an arbitration agreement), we started deposing key witnesses. Not surprisingly, the managers who had either turned a blind eye or perpetrated sexual harassment lied at their depositions about their actions. As a result, Jeffrey Cowan canvassed Southern California to find witnesses whom we believed would impeach the lying managers. Sure enough, both former and current disinterested employees gave testimony that contradicted the managers (and corroborated our client’s story).
Two months before trial, the company asked to mediate the lawsuit. After a mediation in San Francisco, the lawsuit settled in June 2009 for $435,000 and a promise from the corporation that its non-managerial employees in the store where our client had worked would be educated about sexual harassment at least once a week for a year.
Litigation
$476,500 Recovery for Local Company Cheated Out of Sales Commissions
N/A
OUTCOME: $476,500 settlement for Jeffrey Cowan's client
An East Coast company hired our client, a local corporation, to act as its sales force and target Fortune 500 companies. The contract entitled our client to receive commissions on all deals in which it... had any involvement. [This favorable term was negotiated after the East Company refused to give any equity in it.] After our client started generating leads, the East Coast company began repudiating agreements about which target accounts could be pursued. It also cancelled the contract, interfered with our client’s ability to close deals, and concealed the closing of several deals our client had worked on.
Our client tried to resolve these issues informally. It failed. It then retained Los Angeles business trial lawyer Jeffrey Cowan and The Cowan Law Firm.
We invoked the arbitration clause in the parties’ contract. The East Coast company responded by proposing that the companies mediate in the interests of minimizing legal fees. We were amenable – until the East Coast company refused to provide any information about what deals had closed and the revenues they had generated (a requirement to avoid negotiating “in the dark”).
We renewed our demand to arbitrate. The East Coast company ignored us. Because the contract specified that the winning party in any lawsuit could not recover its legal fees if it violated its contractual duty to arbitrate, Jeffrey Cowan filed a “petition to arbitrate” lawsuit in the Los Angeles Superior Court. The East Coast company opposed the lawsuit. A judge rejected its arguments and ordered arbitration. The East Coast company then voluntarily paid our client’s legal fees incurred to that point without the need for more motion practice.
The East Coast company then again proposed mediation. This time, however, it agreed to provide financial information. We mediated twice with retired Superior Court Judge Eric Younger over an 8 month period – with the second session involving hundreds of pages of documents and independent witnesses. As a result, the East Coast company agreed to pay $476,500 to settle the claims of Jeffrey Cowan's client.
