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Christine B. Hawes

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Christine B. Hawes is a counsel in Crowell & Moring's Labor & Employment Group. Christine's practice focuses on litigation of individual and class actions arising in all areas of labor and employment law, including:

  • Wage-and-hour laws, including the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Service Contract Act, and state and local laws
  • Title VII and state anti-discrimination laws
  • Americans with Disabilities Act
  • Family and Medical Leave Act and related state statutes
  • Federal and state whistleblower statutes, including the False Claims Act
  • Alleged wrongful termination
  • Non-competition agreements and other employee contracts
  • Misappropriation of trade secrets claims

Christine also provides counseling to clients on a wide variety of employment issues, including personnel policies, non-competition/non-solicitation agreements, employee discipline, contract disputes, and alleged retaliation under the False Claims Act, Title VII, the FLSA, and state whistleblower statutes. Christine frequently advises clients on and conducts internal investigations that frequently address employment, ethics, and compliance issues.  Additionally, Christine assists clients with affirmative action compliance, preparing affirmative action plans, analyzing compensation practices, and providing counseling in connection with Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs audits.

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A lawsuit seeking $1 billion in damages based on allegations that the rideshare company was founded based on stolen trade secrets can now move forward after a jury in San Francisco Superior Court decided last month that the plaintiff’s claim was timely filed. The complaint alleges that former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and others misappropriated Plaintiff Kevin Halpern’s idea for a startup called Celluride Wireless Inc. – a peer-to-peer service enabling passengers to summon drivers and track them with their cell phones. Halpern claims that he disclosed information about his idea to Kalanick under the promise of secrecy around 2006. The Uber app was launched four years later.

In defense, Kalanick claims that Uber Chairman Garrett Camp, also an individual defendant in the lawsuit, came up with the idea that later became Uber when the two were in Paris. According to Kalanick and Camp, Camp’s initial concept was for a limo timeshare service.
Continue Reading Billion Dollar Trade Secret Misappropriation Lawsuit Against Uber to Move Forward

For the first time, a United States federal court has held that a civil action for private damages under the Defend Trade Secrets Act (“DTSA”) can arise from acts of misappropriation that occur completely outside the United States – as long as they have a nexus with some activities within the U.S. In Motorola Sols., Inc. v. Hytera Commc’ns Corp., Ltd., No. 1:17-cv-1973 (N.D. Ill. Mar. 6, 2020) (an earlier decision in this case was previously discussed on this blog here), Motorola alleged that Hytera Communications, a Chinese company, hired away three engineers who then took with them Motorola trade secrets, including thousands of Motorola’s confidential technical documents containing millions of lines of source code and other highly confidential information.
Continue Reading After Motorola Verdict, DTSA Has Extraterritorial Application

Last week, ProLogic, Inc. (ProLogic) voluntarily dismissed — without a settlement — the last of the claims remaining in its lawsuit against Aquarian Systems, Inc. (Aquarian) and two former employees who became employees of Aquarian. A team of Crowell & Moring lawyers successfully represented Aquarian and, after the claims against Aquarian were dismissed by ProLogic in May, the individual defendants. What began as a complaint seeking $25 million in damages for alleged trade secret misappropriation, tortious interference, and breach of contract, ended with a dismissal of all claims against Aquarian and the individual defendants, without any settlement or payment.
Continue Reading ProLogic Drops $25M Trade Secrets Lawsuit Against Clients of Crowell & Moring

With the ability to move large volumes of information electronically very quickly, the threats from cyber intrusions, joint development partners, and rogue employees are more significant every day. Dollars lost due to trade secret theft tally in the tens if not hundreds of millions annually. President Obama in his State of the Union address warned…