Our litigation teams have prosecuted the most cutting-edge consumer and mass tort cases of the last several decades, securing more than $20 billion in relief for our clients. The firm holds records for the largest jury verdict in a privacy case ($925 million), the largest single-state privacy settlement ($650 million), and the largest Telephone Consumer Protection Act settlement ($76 million). We serve as co-lead counsel in the MDL against the NCAA, its conferences, and member institutions alleging personal injury claims on behalf of college football players resulting from repeated concussive and sub-concussive hits.
We represented over 1,000 victims of the Northern California “Camp Fire,” allegedly caused by utility company Pacific Gas & Electric, and served as counsel to a member of the 11-person Tort Claimants’ Committee in the PG&E Bankruptcy, resulting in a historic $13.5 billion settlement. Litigating on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union, we obtained a consent decree that permanently enjoins Clearview from selling access to its massive database of facial vectors to any private person or company, as well as additional restrictions—a settlement that has been called a “milestone for civil rights.”
In class actions, we’ve secured billions in settlement funds in matters ranging from privacy to consumer actions against the nation’s biggest banks. Our class actions brought against the national banks in the wake of the housing collapse restored over $5 billion in home equity credit lines. We are the only firm to have established that online apps can constitute illegal gambling under state law, resulting in more than $650 million in settlements in the last two years.
Our litigators have been named by Law360 as a Consumer Protection Group of the Year (2016, 2017, 2019, 2020), a Class Action Group of the Year (2019), a Plaintiff’s Class Action Powerhouse (2017, 2018, 2019), a Cybersecurity and Privacy Group of the Year (2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022), a “Privacy Litigation Heavyweight,” a “Cybersecurity Trailblazer” by The National Law Journal (2016) and won sole recognition in 2019 as “Elite Trial Lawyers” in Gaming Law. The National Law Journal also recognized us as “Elite Trial Lawyers” in Consumer Protection (2020, 2021), Class Action (2021), Privacy/Data Breach (2020), Mass Torts (2020), and Sports, Entertainment and Media Law (2020).
Representative matters include:
- Filed the first of its kind class action against Facebook under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, alleging Facebook collected facial recognition data from its users without authorization. Appointed Class Counsel in securing adversarial certification of class of Illinois Facebook users. Case settled on the eve of trial for a record breaking $650 million. In re Facebook Biometric Privacy Litig., No. 15-cv-03747 (N.D. Cal.). Since then, the firm has gone on to obtain more than $100 million in relief for consumers under BIPA.
- Appointed co-lead counsel in MDL against the NCAA, its conferences, and member institutions alleging personal injury claims on behalf of college football players resulting from repeated concussive and sub-concussive hits. In re Nat’l Collegiate Athletic Ass’n Single School/Single Sport Concussion Litig., No. 16- cv-8727, MDL No. 2492 (N.D. Ill.)
- Lead counsel in a class action alleging marketing company ViSalus made millions of unsolicited robocalls to consumers in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. Following a three-day trial, a jury reached a verdict that calculates to at least $925 million. Commentators have called this the largest privacy verdict in history (Brookings, June 2020). See Wakefield v. Visalus, No. 3:15-cv-01857 (D. OR.)
- Obtained more than $650 million in settlements for against gambling companies for allegedly profiting off illegal internet casinos. See Kater v. Churchill Downs Inc., 886 F.3d 784 (9th Cir. 2018),.
- Successfully represented ACLU and other public interest organizations as lead outside counsel in a lawsuit against Clearview, Inc., resulting in consent decree. The consent decree permanently enjoins Clearview from selling access to its massive database of facial vectors to any private person or company, as well as prohibits Clearview from sales to any entity within Illinois for five years, including government agencies or police departments. American Civil Liberties Union v. Clearview AI, Inc., No. 20 CH 4353 (Cir. Ct. Cook Cty.). The settlement has been called a “milestone for civil rights.”