Privacy: Regulated Personal Information (RPI)

These RPI statutes provide a perfect storm for litigation, since they are, as a practical matter, primarily enforced on a strict-liability basis and are tough to dismiss at the pleading stage. Compounding the risk profile is the fact that RPI statutes also provide for uncapped statutory damages, often leading to staggering damage calculations in class action matters aggressively pursued by the plaintiff's bar.

Our RPI Practice currently focuses primarily on three privacy statutes that are active breeding grounds for debilitating class action litigation: the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA); the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA); and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). Our RPI attorneys also have experience with other key privacy statutes, including the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), which significantly amends and expands the existing CCPA; the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA); the Florida Telephone Solicitation Act (FTSA); the Florida Security of Communications Act (FSCA); and the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA). We actively monitor and advise companies regarding the growing number of similar laws regulating personal and biometric information appearing in state legislatures nationwide. Through this work, we help to develop and implement proactive strategies for those companies looking to mitigate future legal exposure in this developing field.

We take a cross-practice approach to addressing the challenges posed by these privacy statutes. We help companies across all industries understand and address their obligations under these laws while proactively taking steps to mitigate potential regulatory and class action exposure. We provide companies an integrated approach across the counseling and litigation spectrum—an offering few law firms can deliver—and it is our collective experience that provides companies comfort and clear guidance in a legal environment full of vague and quickly developing case law.

Our RPI team—co-chaired by a former federal privacy regulator and a noted consumer class action defense lawyer—is fully staffed with experienced counselors and litigators who thrive on advising companies as to how to navigate their privacy obligations.