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Robyn built internal infrastructure from the ground up, including benefits programs.“ They didn’ t have a 401( k) plan or other benefits such as FSA and Dependent Care. I helped set those up and negotiated the contracts,” she notes. The in-house experience changed her understanding of employment law. It became a lived experience, not just a retrospective analysis.
After several years inside the business, she wanted to focus solely on legal work again. She carried that new perspective forward.“ I think it was just a couple of weeks from the first conversation to an offer,” Robyn says of joining Entertainment Partners in 2024.
Switching industries
At Entertainment Partners, Robyn applies her combined experience to a business built for the complexity of modern entertainment productions which can be confusing to outsiders. The company supports motion picture and television productions through payroll and related services as well as production finance and production management solutions at scale. It appears as the employer on paychecks for certain purposes while production companies are the employer of their talent and crew production workers for most purposes through their control hiring, supervision, and termination. When claims arise, many miss this important distinction.
Robyn often steps in early, before minor misunderstandings turn into formal disputes. In an industry where people sometimes mistake payroll for authority, clarity is her first tool. By making this distinction clear from the beginning, she shifts conversations and often prevents matters from escalating into litigation.
Robyn oversees employment litigation tied to production workers across the industry. When possible, she resolves matters internally and brings in outside counsel as needed. Recently, her duties expanded.“ I now handle, along with my team, all things employment related. That includes the production worker side, where we are an employer for payroll tax and certain other back-office purposes, and our own corporate employees, where we are the full employer,” she shares. The scope has grown, but her approach is consistent.
Embracing smart tech
Robyn’ s work now spans many jurisdictions and new emerging technologies. Yet her focus stays on judgment. Entertainment Partners has invested in new technology, including AI tools, all grounded in a strong foundation of data governance and security. She approaches these tools with the same discipline she applies to her legal work.“ I talked with our privacy group before I started using it. Even now, I am cautious. I double-check everything. AI sometimes gets things wrong,” she says.
She uses the tools to locate documents, recall prior correspondence, and conduct earlystage research, especially outside her primary jurisdictions.“ It helps point me in the right
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