Curriculum Vitae

J. ELI WADE-SCOTT is a Partner at Edelson PC where he represents classes of consumers and governments.

 

Eli has been frequently appointed to represent states and cities to handle high-profile litigation, including by the District of Columbia against JUUL, Inc. in litigation arising from the youth vaping epidemic, by the State of New Mexico to prosecute Google’s violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, and as a Special Assistant State’s Attorney for Illinois and the District of Columbia in litigation against Facebook arising from the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

 

Representative Consumer Cases:

• Class counsel in nearly a dozen cash settlements on behalf of consumers, collectively worth more than $50 million, including a $25 million all-cash, non-reversionary settlement for employees in action arising under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (“BIPA”). Kusinski v. ADP LLC, No. 2017-CH-12364 (Cir. Ct. Cook Cty.).
• Lead counsel in a novel putative class action against ADT over security flaws in its home security system that allowed a technician to surreptitiously spy on families—including children—in their most intimate moments at home.
• Lead outside attorney for the ACLU and other public interest organizations in a lawsuit against Clearview seeking to enjoin Clearview’s mass collection of facial recognition templates. Clearview raised a host of novel, existential arguments for privacy rights at the motion to dismiss stage, which was rejected in a thorough opinion and the case is ongoing. See American Civil Liberties Union v. Clearview AI, Inc., No. 20 CH 4353, 2021 WL 4164452, at *1 (Ill.Cir.Ct. Aug. 27, 2021).

 

Representative Government Cases:

• Representing District of Columbia and appointed Special Assistant State’s Attorney for Illinois in actions against Facebook arising from the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Argued successful motion to remand from MDL filed by Cook County State’s Attorney on behalf of the People of the State of Illinois. In re Facebook, Inc., Consumer Privacy User Profile Litig., No. 18-cv-06486, 2019 WL 348893 (N.D. Cal. Jan. 29, 2019).
• Representing the District of Columbia in enforcement action against JUUL for alleged deceptive marketing leading to a youth vaping epidemic. District of Columbia v. JUUL Labs, Inc., 2019 CA 007795 B (D.C. Sup. Ct.).
• Representing the State of New Mexico in action against Google for alleged violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. State of New Mexico, ex rel. Hector Balderas, Attorney General for the State of New Mexico v. Google LLC, 20-cv-00143 (D.N.M.).
• Successfully represented Illinois municipality, and secured temporary restraining order and civil contempt against hospital purchasers who promptly sought closure of community hospital after misleading the public, in what has been called “one of the most complicated hospital closure disputes in the state’s history.” Village of Melrose Park v. Pipeline Health Sys. LLC, et al., No. 19-CH-03041 (Cir. Ct. Cook Cty., Ill.).
• Successfully represented the City of Chicago and Cook County State’s Attorney against Uber Technologies for 2014 and 2016 data breaches. City of Chicago and People of the State of Illinois, ex rel. Kimberly M. Foxx, State’s Attorney of Cook County, Illinois v. Uber Technologies, Inc., No. 17-CH-15594 (Cir. Ct. Cook Cty, Ill.).

 

Before joining Edelson PC, Eli served as a law clerk to the Honorable Rebecca Pallmeyer of the Northern District of Illinois. Eli has also worked as a Skadden Fellow at Legal Aid Chicago, Cook County’s federally-funded legal aid provider. There, Eli represented low-income tenants in affirmative litigation against their landlords to remedy dangerous housing conditions.

 

Eli received his J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he was an Executive Editor on the Harvard Law and Policy Review and a research assistant to Professor Vicki C. Jackson.

 

Awards and Honors:

• Covered in the “They’ve Got Next” series, profiling Five Fresh Faces to Know in Privacy and Cybersecurity.
• Recognized from 2019-2021 as an Illinois Rising Star by Super Lawyers.
• Awarded an Equal Justice America Fellowship in 2012 and Vorenberg Equal Justice Summer Fellowship in 2013 to fund public interest positions.
• Awarded a Skadden Fellowship by the Skadden Fellowship Foundation, 2014.

 

Teaching:

• Guest Lecturer in the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law’s Clinic Practice: Civil Litigation Course, 2015 and 2016.
• Presenter, The Remote Courtroom in the Time of COVID, Illinois State Bar Association & Illinois Judges’ Association (Dec. 11, 2020).
• Presenter, Standing, Statutory Violations, and “Intangible Harm”: The Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act and Beyond, Celesq (May 5, 2019).

 

Read More