Privacy & Cybersecurity Litigation

Overview

Alston & Bird’s Privacy & Cybersecurity Litigation Team represents clients in class actions, complex civil litigation, and government and internal investigations. We have achieved excellent results in jurisdictions across the country because our litigators are skilled advocates in privacy and data security regulation. We also know the businesses of our clients, which include providers of telecommunications services and credit reporting agencies.

Our team’s lead lawyers are nationally renowned class action professionals, civil trial lawyers, and former federal prosecutors backed by a deep, talented bench and work regularly with our Technology & Privacy Group. Together, we have represented our clients in federal and state jurisdictions and have litigated issues arising under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, Telephone Consumer Protection Act, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and Fair Credit Reporting Act, as well as analogous state statutes and state common law.

Our Privacy & Data Security attorneys are ranked in The Best Lawyers in America and are members of the International Association of Privacy Professionals. The practice is recognized in Chambers Global: World’s Leading Lawyers for Business and Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business as one of the leading privacy practices in the United States.

Experience

• Obtained dismissal of all claims against a leading credit card processor in a class action arising out of a data breach. 
• Defending a leading rent-to-own company in class actions across the country, as well as related government investigations, based on allegations that the company installed spyware on its leased computers and used it to take webcam photographs, log key strokes, and take screen shots of computing activities. 
• Defending a home improvement retailer in multidistrict data breach litigation. 
• Obtained dismissal of all claims against the world’s largest retailer in a class action arising out of website privacy practices. 
• Defended BellSouth in multiple class actions alleging that it impermissibly revealed confidential customer information to the federal government through the National Security Agency’s Terrorist Surveillance Program. 
• Defended a leading wireless service provider in litigation alleging that the provider installed software on mobile handsets and used it to monitor customer communications in violation of state privacy statutes. 
• Defended a leading telecommunications provider in litigation alleging violation of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and related state-law claims based on alleged wiretapping of telephone lines and interception of emails.
• Resolved multiple, coordinated state attorneys general investigations after an alleged third-party “hack” of a celebrity’s wireless device.
• Defended Verizon South in an action filed by a criminal defense attorney in the District of South Carolina. The plaintiff alleged that Verizon South conspired with police to unlawfully wiretap her telephone line and intercept her emails and pleaded statutory claims under the Wiretapping Act, as well as common-law tort claims. We secured a voluntary dismissal of the case.

Videos

David Carpenter | The TCPA: What Your Business Needs to Know

June 22, 2018

David Carpenter, Litigation partner, provides an overview of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and what risks this statute poses to companies.