Laura D. Smolowe
Partner
Areas of Focus
- Labor & Employment
- Complex Commercial Litigation
- Trade Secret Litigation
- Executive Disputes & Agreements
- Fiduciary Litigation
- California Labor & Employment Litigation
- Wage & Hour/Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) Litigation & Counseling
- Class Actions
- Securities Enforcement & Litigation
- Investment Funds Litigation
- Technology
- Health Care & Life Sciences
- Cybersecurity, Privacy & Data Protection
- Disputes & Investigations
- First-chair litigator and trial lawyer with extensive experience in high-stakes commercial disputes involving trade secrets, restrictive covenants, breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, worker classification, privacy and fraud.
- Represents companies in a range of industries, with a particular focus on technology, health care and life sciences, investment management and professional services.
Laura has more than 15 years of experience guiding public and private companies through complex and sensitive commercial disputes. She litigates matters from pre-litigation counsel and resolution through trial, before federal and state courts and arbitration panels, and has served as lead counsel to multiple Fortune 500 companies.
A seasoned trial lawyer, Laura has substantial experience litigating—and winning—on both the plaintiff and defense side, including three arbitrations in recent years. Two of her successful trial verdicts have been named “Top Defense Verdicts” of the year by the Daily Journal.
She represents clients in matters involving a variety of challenging legal issues, including:
- Misappropriation of trade secrets
- Employee mobility
- Breach of contract
- Breach of fiduciary duty
- Fraud
- Unfair competition
- Tortious interference
- Worker misclassification
- Privacy
- Legal malpractice.
Laura also maintains a robust pro bono practice focused on civil rights cases. Among other successes, she partnered with the ACLU of Southern California in two groundbreaking cases challenging police and prosecutorial enforcement of gang injunctions.
Laura received her J.D. from Yale Law School, where she was a senior editor of the Yale Law and Policy Review. Following law school, Laura served as a law clerk for Judge Richard A. Paez of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit and Judge Dean D. Pregerson of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
Prior to joining Akin, Laura served as co-leader of the trade secret and employee mobility practice at a leading Los Angeles-based law firm.
- Representing Yipit LLC, a subsidiary of the Carlyle Group, in bringing an action for trade secret misappropriation in the Southern District of New York.
- Representing Paul Hastings LLP against a legal malpractice claim in California Superior Court brought by a former client in the biotech start-up space.
- Representing Twomagnets, Inc. (DBA “Clipboard”)—an online marketplace that matches healthcare facilities looking to fill shifts with healthcare workers looking to find them—in multiple putative class and collective actions alleging that the workers were misclassified as independent contractors.
- Representing a Fortune Global 500 financial company in class action litigation involving California privacy laws.
- Represented Lore, a healthcare app, in a trade secret dispute in Minnesota federal court. After filing a motion to dismiss on behalf of Lore, the case settled.
EducationJ.D., Yale Law School, 2006
B.A., Yale University, magna cum laude, 2002
J.D., Yale Law School, 2006
B.A., Yale University, magna cum laude, 2002
ClerkshipsU.S.C.A., 9th Circuit
U.S.D.C., Central District of California
U.S.C.A., 9th Circuit
U.S.D.C., Central District of California
Bar AdmissionsCalifornia
California
- The Best Lawyers of America, 2024 to 2025.
- Lawdragon, 500 Leading Litigators, 2023 to 2025.
- Los Angeles Business Journal, Women of Influence: Attorneys, 2024.
- Los Angeles Business Journal, Leaders of Influence: Thriving in their 40s, 2023.
- Los Angeles Business Journal, Women of Influence, 2021.
- Super Lawyers, Southern California Rising Star, 2019 to 2020.
- ACLU Equal Justice Award, 2018.
- Los Angeles Business Journal, Most Influential Intellectual Property Lawyers, 2017.
- ACLU Courageous Advocacy Award, 2011.
- Member, Board of Trustees, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
- Member, Board of Directors, Los Angeles Master Chorale.
- Panelist, “Proving Damages in Trade Secrets Cases: Updates and Practical Tips,” American Bar Association Litigation Section Roundtable, February 2025.
- Panelist, “Patents, Copyrights, and Trade Secrets: Oh My! Surveying the Artificial Intelligence and Intellectual Property Landscape in California and Beyond,” PLI’s The Convergence of Artificial Intelligence and Intellectual Property in California and Beyond 2024, San Francisco, November 2024.
- Presenter, “The Art of Negotiation: Settlements, Arbitration and Mediation,” PropertyCasualty360’s Complex Claims & Litigation Forum, Las Vegas, February 2023.
- Panelist, American Bar Association Litigation Section’s Professional Success Summit, October 2022.
- Panelist, Daily Journal’s Trade Secrets Forum, Palo Alto, September 2019.
- Speaker, “Fundamentals of Taking Depositions,” Bridgeport Continuing Education’s Mastering the Deposition Los Angeles 2017, September 2017.
- Panelist, “Courtroom Issues Unique to Women,” Bridgeport Continuing Education’s Gender Issues in The Courtroom, August 2017.
- Speaker, “Employee Mobility Issues: Strategies for Litigating Trade Secret Misappropriation Claims and Handling Non-Competition and Non-Solicitation Clauses,” Bridgeport Continuing Education’s Trade Secret and Employee Mobility Los Angeles 2017, May 2017.
- Co-author, chapter on “Trade Secrets and Restrictive Covenants,” California Business Litigation (2017, 2016 editions).
- Author, “Understanding Calif.’s Nuanced Trade Secrets Law,” Law360, Oct. 28, 2014.
