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Wolverine

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mgoblog.com

If I wasn't a Lawyer

I'd be a stay-at-home Dad

Curriculum Vitae

ARI J. SCHARG is a Partner at Edelson PC, where he leads the Public Impact team and works with the New Matters team to investigate and file new cases for the firm.

Ari has spearheaded high-impact litigation on behalf of consumers and governments alike. As chair of the Public Impact team, he represents survivors and families of mass shootings, including victims of the July 4 Highland Park parade in a landmark suit challenging Smith & Wesson’s marketing of AR-15 rifles to adolescents. Ari has worked with his teams to investigate and develop a wide array of cutting-edge cases, including litigation against predatory “sweepstakes casinos” and other illegal online gambling sites, bad-faith insurance mass actions against the California FAIR Plan on behalf of Los Angeles wildfire victims, complex privacy and data mining cases under state and federal law, and environmental pollution suits on behalf of public clients.

As Special Counsel to the cities of Columbus and Cincinnati, Ari led litigation alleging money laundering and corruption by FirstEnergy, securing a preliminary injunction that blocked more than $1 billion in improper fees from being charged to ratepayers. As Special Counsel for the Village of Melrose Park, Ari served as lead trial counsel in a first-of-its-kind suit to block the closure of Westlake Hospital, a critical safety-net facility serving medically and socially vulnerable minority populations. In what has been called “one of the most complicated hospital closure disputes in the state’s history,” Ari obtained a temporary restraining order preventing service shutdowns and, after a full-day evidentiary hearing, secured a contempt order against the hospital’s owners for premature closure attempts.

Over his career, Ari has litigated hundreds of privacy and consumer-protection cases under federal and state laws and has helped shape policy through testimony before the Michigan House and Nevada Assembly on emerging privacy issues. Ari served on the Executive Oversight Council for the Array of Things Project, founded and chaired the Illinois State Bar Association’s Privacy and Information Security Section, and co-chaired the Illinois Blockchain and Distributed Ledgers Task Force.

Outside the office, Ari is active in his community, serving on both the Ravinia Elementary School and Edgewood Middle School Parent Teacher Organizations. Ari loves coaching his daughter’s softball team, cheering for his son’s football team, and watching Michigan football every Saturday with his family.

  • Representing a broad range of stakeholders in litigation against opioid companies, including governments, municipal risk pools, labor unions, and health and welfare funds. See, e.g., Int’l Union of Operating Eng’rs, Local 150, et al. v. Purdue Pharma L.P., et al., No. 2019-CH-01548 (Cir. Ct. Cook Cty., Ill.); City of Harvey, et al. v. Purdue Pharma L.P., et al., No. 2018-CH-09020 (Cir. Ct. Cook Cty., Ill.); Village of Melrose Park, et al. v. Purdue Pharma L.P., et al., No. 2018-CH-06601 (Cir. Ct. Cook Cty., Ill.); Intergovernmental Risk Management Agency, et al. v. Purdue Pharma L.P., et al., No. 2018-CH-12828 (Cir. Ct. Cook Cty., Ill.).
  • Appointed Special Assistant Corporation Counsel for the City of Chicago and Special Assistant by the Cook County State’s Attorney in their consolidated data breach/failure to notify lawsuit against Uber Technologies. City of Chicago and People of Illinois, ex rel. Kimberly M. Foxx, State’s Attorney of Cook County, Ill. v. Uber Technologies, Inc., No. 17-CH-15594 (Cir. Ct. Cook Cty., Ill.).
  • Appointed Special Assistant by the Cook County State’s Attorney in a suit against Facebook and Cambridge Analytica over their alleged misuse of consumer data. People of Illinois, ex rel. Kimberly M. Foxx, State’s Attorney of Cook County, Ill. v. Facebook, Inc., No. 18-cv-02667 (N.D. Ill.).
  • Appointed Special Assistant by the Lake County State’s Attorney in a suit against e-cigarette giant Juul Labs alleging false and deceptive marketing and that the company intentionally marketed its e-cigarette and nicotine pod products to minors.
  • Appointed Special Counsel to the Village of Melrose Park in a suit against Pipeline Health and its partners for allegedly committing fraud and conspiracy in connection with their purchase of Westlake Hospital. Village of Melrose Park v. Pipeline Health System, et al., No. 2019-CH-03041 (Cir. Ct. Cook Cty., Ill.).
  • Lead counsel in class actions under the Michigan Preservation of Personal Privacy Act involving the unlawful disclosure of personal information to data miners that secured more than $30 million in cash settlements and industry-changing injunctive relief. See, e.g., Coulter-Owens v. Rodale, No. 14-cv-12688, dkt. 54 (E.D. Mich. Sept. 29, 2016); Kinder v. Meredith Corp., No. 13-cv-11284, dkt. 81 (E.D. Mich. May 18, 2016); Perlin v. Time Inc., 2:16-cv-10635, dkt. 55 (E.D. Mich. Oct. 15, 2018); Halaburda v. Bauer Publ’g Co., No. 12-cv-12831, dkt. 68 (E.D. Mich. Jan. 6, 2015); Moeller v. Am. Media, Inc., No. 5:16-cv-11367, dkt. 42 (E.D. Mich. Jun. 8, 2017).
  • Chair of the Illinois State Bar Association’s Privacy and Information Security Section (2017, 2018, 2019).
  • Co-Chair of the Illinois Blockchain and Distributed Ledgers Task Force.
  • Executive Oversight Council for the Array of Things.
  • Digital Privacy Alliance, Board of Directors (2017, 2018, 2019).
  • Appointed as an Observer to the Uniform Law Commission’s Identity Management in Electronic Commerce, Study Committee.
  • American Bar Foundation, Fellow.
  • Illinois Bar Foundation, Fellow.
  • Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, Board of Managers (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019).
  • Sixth Municipal Circuit (Markham) High School Mock Trial Competition Committee (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019).
  • Graduate of the Anti-Defamation League Glass Leadership Institute.
  • Testified before the Michigan House of Representatives Committee on Commerce and Trade about Senate Bill No. 490’s impact on consumer privacy and the surging data mining industry (February 9, 2016).
  • Panelist for HB Litigation’s Data Breach & Privacy Conference, “Sleuthing: Investigation & Evidence Collection in a Cyber World” (February 11, 2016).
  • Guest speaker at Loyola University Chicago School of Law’s Consumer Law Review Symposium, “Consumer Class Actions in the Social Media Age” (March 18, 2016).
  • Guest speaker for the Chicago Bar Association, Consumer Law Committee, “Legal Theories on Privacy & Interconnectivity” (May 5, 2016).
  • Guest speaker for the Chicago Bar Association Consumer Law Committee, “Emerging Issues in Privacy and Data Security Litigation” (February 2, 2017).
  • Guest speaker at Chi Hack Night, “Mr. Robot Goes to Washington” (February 28, 2017).
  • Testified before the Nevada Assembly Commerce and Labor Committee in support of Assembly Bill 313 and to discuss the privacy implications raised by the surreptitious collection and use of geolocation data (April 3, 2017).
  • Panelist for the Privacy + Security Forum’s “State Privacy Legislation Trends to Watch” (October 4, 2017).
  • Panelist for NetDiligence’s Cyber Risk & Privacy Liability Forum, “Litigation Tips from the Trenches: A Focus on Settlement of Cybersecurity Class Actions and Regulatory Investigations” (October 11, 2017).
  • Moderated a fireside chat for Smart Cities Summit’s ”Optimizing Data for Tomorrow’s Cities – Real-Time Intelligent Decisions” (October 17, 2017).
  • Guest speaker for the Illinois State Bar Association’s Solo & Small Firm Practice Institute Series, “Cybersecurity – Running Your Practice in Today’s High-Tech World” (March 16, 2018).
  • Appeared for WTTW’s live broadcast of Chicago Tonight, “Facebook Users’ Personal Data Exploited to Help Trump’s Campaign” (March 20, 2018).
  • Guest speaker for the Illinois State Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Law Office Management and Economics, “Cybersecurity for Law Firms” (June 15, 2018).
  • Guest speaker for the Chicago Bar Association’s Intellection Property Section, “Cybersecurity and Privacy Law Panel” (March 6, 2019).
  • Testified before the Illinois House of Representatives Appropriations-Human Services Committee concerning alleged fraud and conspiracy committed by Pipeline Health in connection with its purchase of Westlake Hospital (March 8, 2019).
  • Testified before the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board, as Special Counsel to Melrose Park, in opposition to Pipeline Health’s application to close Westlake Hospital (March 11, 2019).
  • Guest speaker for the Lake County Bar Association, “The Biometric Information Privacy Act: Current Landscape and Recent Developments” (May 30, 2019).
  • Guest faculty, American Bar Association, “Biometric Identifiers and Technology: Privacy and Security” (July 25, 2019).
  • Testified before the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board in opposition to Quorum Health Corporation’s application to close MetroSouth Medical Center (September 17, 2019).

Ari received his B.A. in Sociology from the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor and graduated magna cum laude from the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law where he served as a Staff Editor for the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law Law Review and competed nationally in trial competitions. During law school, he also served as a judicial extern to The Honorable Judge Bruce W. Black of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

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