Overview
Erin Cox is a complex civil litigation partner, focusing on the needs of companies in the financial services and media and entertainment industries.
Erin advises companies on their most sensitive, high-stakes matters, successfully navigating legal and regulatory risk arising in investigations, arbitrations and litigation in federal and state courts across the country. She has racked up wins for clients both on the papers before judges and on her feet before juries. She has been recognized as an Up and Coming lawyer in media and entertainment by Chambers USA and as a Rising Star by Law360.
Capabilities
Experience
Financial Services Litigation
Erin has extensive experience representing banks, investment firms, and FinTech companies on a wide range of disputes including class actions, regulatory compliance, securities litigation, allegations of breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract, improper sales practices and other claims.
Key representations include:
Wells Fargo Bank in:
- federal court in a suit alleging mismanagement of billions of dollars of investments in its securities lending program. After a seven-week trial, the jury returned a unanimous verdict for Wells Fargo on all claims and awarded zero damages.
- class actions and individual actions in federal and state court relating to allegedly improper sales practices, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract and violation of consumer protection statutes.
- a securities class action concerning over 50 RMBS offerings.
- securing summary judgment in a sexual harassment and retaliation case filed by a former executive. Intensive discovery, including dozens of depositions, demonstrated that Wells Fargo promptly conducted a thorough investigation, removed the alleged harassers from the workplace, and did not take any adverse action connected with the report of harassment, cutting off any liability.
- winning a unanimous victory following a two-week trial in a case in which the plaintiff sought tens of millions of dollars in treble damages on the basis of allegations that the bank had improperly recorded a business communication in violation of California Law and then terminated the high-level employee as a result of the conduct revealed in the recording. This victory was recognized as a Top Defense Verdict for 2020 by the Daily Journal.
Bank of America in:
- securities litigation in federal and state courts arising from the issuance of mortgage-backed securities.
- a variety of breach of contract matters.
- an investigation by a consortium of district attorneys relating to the bank’s compliance with call recording disclosure requirements in the California Penal Code.
Banks, investment firms, and FinTech companies in:
- Internal and government investigations relating to regulatory compliance, and allegations of misconduct by executives.
- Defeating breach of contract claims following multi-day arbitration hearings.
Burrill Life Sciences Capital Fund III, L.P., as a plaintiff, in a fraud case against the Fund’s former general partner and former auditor (a Big Four accounting firm) arising from a years-long multi-million dollar embezzlement scheme. After a year of litigation, the Fund settled with the former general partner for a significant portion of its damages, and then settled with the former auditor on a confidential basis.
Media and Entertainment Litigation
Erin has advised media companies on high-stakes copyright matters and other claims.
Key representations include:
Disney in:
- winning complete dismissal—affirmed on appeal—of character copyright infringement and implied contract/idea theft claims relating to the anthropomorphized emotion characters at the heart of Disney•Pixar’s acclaimed motion picture “Inside Out”. A leading treatise on copyright has described the Ninth Circuit affirmance—which tracked the arguments in the brief penned by Erin—as “a master class in character copyright law.” 2 Patry on Copyright § 3:164. The plaintiff filed a petition for certiorari to the United States Supreme Court, which was denied.
- defending against other claims of copyright infringement related to the motion picture “Inside Out”.
- successfully defending Disney subsidiaries from a copyright lawsuit alleging that a series of young adult novels in the superhero/fantasy genre, titled The Zodiac Legacy and credited to legendary comics creator Stan Lee, were copied from the plaintiff’s screenplay. The court granted summary judgment, finding for Disney on a trifecta of independently sufficient grounds: (1) The plaintiff had failed to prove access; (2) the alleged similarities between the works were “either unprotectible, non-existent, random, and/or not present at the level of expression, and therefore insufficient to show substantial similarity”; and (3) there was “detailed and specific evidence of independent creation” of The Zodiac Legacy series which would be sufficient to overcome any inference of copying.
- defending against claims of copyright infringement related to Disney’s blockbuster motion picture “Frozen”.
NBCUniversal and KNBC Los Angeles in a one-month jury trial in Los Angeles Superior Court in a case brought by an award-winning investigative producer alleging age discrimination. After four days of deliberations, the court declared a mistrial after the jury announced that it was deadlocked.
An independent television channel in a dispute with a large media company.
More
- Chambers USA, Media & Entertainment: Litigation (California), 2024 & 2025
- “Rising Star,” Law360, May 2021
- “Rising Star,” Super Lawyers, 2018-2019
Publications
- Quoted, “Media & Entertainment Group of the Year: Munger Tolles,” Law360, Dec. 15, 2020
- “An Economic Crisis Is a Terrible Thing to Waste: Reforming the Business of Law for a Sustainable and Competitive Future,” UCLA Law Review, Vol. 57, p. 511, 2009
- “Freeing Exercise at Expression’s Expense: When RFRA Privileges the Religiously Motivated Speaker,” UCLA Law Review, Vol. 56, p. 169, 2008
