Celebrity lawyer Alex Spiro will represent a CoStar competitor in the legal fight of its life

• Real estate data giant CoStar Group claims Crexi stole tens of thousands of its photos.
• Crexi countersued CoStar over its dominance of the market for office-leasing data.
• Alex Spiro, who has represented big-name clients like Elon Musk and Jay Z, is now defending Crexi.

Real estate data company Crexi has brought on celebrity lawyer Alex Spiro — known for defending billionaires, rappers, and professional athletes — in its scrap with CoStar Group.

According to court filings on Wednesday, Spiro will now defend Crexi in its legal battle with the real estate data giant. The $3,000-an-hour lawyer has represented clients like Elon Musk, Jay-Z, and Megan Thee Stallion, and has also worked for a variety of businesses in disputes with short-sellers, rivals, and regulators.

CoStar, a $29 billion company known for its real-estate data and deals platforms, claims that Crexi used offshore workers in India to "copy and crop" photos from CoStar's Loopnet website, omitting CoStar's watermark. After a mixed ruling in June that affirmed CoStar's ownership of the photos, the case, which was filed in 2020, is headed to trial.

Crexi responded by accusing CoStar of abusing its market power and violating US antitrust law. That countersuit was originally thrown out, but an appeals court revived Crexi's claims earlier this year. Crexi wanted both cases to go to trial at the same time, but a judge rejected that, so Crexi is playing defense first.

CoStar is a dominant player in real-estate data and has a history of winning legal fights. Bringing on a big name like Spiro is a shot across the bow. It could also catch the attention of other CoStar rivals, including Zillow, which was sued by CoStar over the summer based on similar allegations of stealing copyrighted photos from the CoStar-owned website Homes.com.

Spiro and representatives for CoStar did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"CoStar will finally be held accountable for years of misconduct against the commercial real estate industry," Crexi said in a statement. "We're excited to welcome Alex Spiro and Quinn Emanuel to join this fight and lead our trial team."

Lawyers from Latham & Watkins are representing CoStar.

The Crexi dispute is similar to a previous legal fight between CoStar and Xceligent, a commercial real estate data company that was spun out from Loopnet in 2012. It went bankrupt in 2017, about a year after it was sued by CoStar for allegedly stealing thousands of copyrighted photos.

Xceligent had also accused CoStar of violating monopoly laws, but those claims failed.