Commercial Litigation Outlook 2023: Consumer class actions and recent developments in the law related to privacy claims

Kristine R. Argentine | Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Kristine is a zealous advocate for her clients in the areas of consumer class action defense, complex commercial disputes, trade secrets, restrictive covenants, and fraud.

Kristine works with her clients to develop and implement the best strategic approach to align with their particular goals and needs. She approaches her cases with a comprehensive and cost-effective strategy that takes into consideration a variety of potential defense outcomes. She has represented a wide range of clients in class actions and complex commercial litigation in jurisdictions all over the country in both state and federal court.

Kristine serves as the National Chair of Seyfarth’s Commercial Consumer Class Action Defense Group. She has extensive experience with class action defense with respect to consumer issues, including but not limited to, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, consumer fraud, unfair trade practices, breach of warranty, breach of contract, unfair competition, and false advertising. Kristine has prepared and argued numerous Kristine R. Argentine Partner Consumer Class Actions successful motions to dismiss and other dispositive motions in class actions and complex litigation matters, including defeating several class certification motions.

Kristine has represented a wide range of clients in class actions including retailers, personal care companies, auto manufacturers and retailers, grocery chains, food manufacturers, and commercial and consumer product manufacturers.

Kristine has been with Seyfarth since joining as a summer associate during law school. She loves the challenges that come with litigation, and counseling her clients in anticipation of litigation. Kristine enjoys representing clients in varying jurisdictions, and working with clients and with her colleagues to develop innovative litigation strategies and solutions that best serve her clients’ needs.

Paul Yovanic | Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Paul helps his clients navigate complex litigation matters and resolve their legal challenges through cost effective and practical solutions.

Paul’s practice focuses on class actions, including data, privacy, and information security litigation. He has extensive class action experience and defends clients against data breach claims and the highly litigious Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), often litigating matters of first impression. Paul has defended dozens of BIPA class actions, both employment and consumer, including some of the most high-profile lawsuits in the country. His attention to detail and team-first mentality has made him a key member of various bet-the-company cases.

Paul is co-editor of Seyfarth’s Consumer Class Action Defense Blog. In addition to class action and privacy litigation, he also represents clients in a variety of industries against commercial contracts, product liability, premises liability, employment discrimination, and bankruptcy litigation.

Paul was a summer associate at Seyfarth in 2016. During law school, he was an extern at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and a CALI Award recipient for Appellate Advocacy and Writing. Paul was also the president of Loyola’s labor & employment law society and a member of the school’s ABA Negotiation Team. As a 711- licensed law student, Paul gained valuable experience representing pro se litigants through the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Settlement Assistance Program for the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois

Jason Priebe | Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Jason Priebe is a partner in the Chicago office of Seyfarth Shaw LLP, and a senior member of the firm’s eDiscovery and Information Governance Group. His practice focuses on issues involved in information privacy compliance, information governance, record management and data security. He dedicates the majority of his practice to Information Governance and Privacy Compliance, including legal consultation and advice to large and diverse corporations and organizations regarding the design and implementation of information governance programs. This includes the development of policies and procedures for classification, storage, cross-border transfer and disclosure of information. His experience includes serving as an in-house counsel for a publicly traded nationwide insurer, where he advised on issues involving litigation hold administration, information management, and electronic data discovery process and policy.

Mr. Priebe has extensive litigation and jury trial experience in a broad range of substantive areas. He has managed and directed several incident response, regulatory and internal data privacy investigations, while at the same time providing routine advice to corporations in routine and ad hoc data privacy compliance projects. He has also coordinated forensic investigations, data beach notification and regulatory communications in the domestic US and Europe, including formal contact and communications with US state officials and various Data Privacy Authorities in the UK, Switzerland and the EU. He is a recognized authority on the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), and has spoken and written about the variety of US and international privacy challenges for global companies and organizations. Jason also provides internal compliance advice and representation to his firm as an Associate General Counsel. In this role, he is primarily responsible for the firm’s global data privacy compliance for its personnel and clients in Europe, Asia and the U.S.

Session I – Class Action Privacy Trends in 2023 | 2:00pm – 3:00pm

• Illinois BIPA | 2:00pm – 2:15pm
• TCPA developments | 2:15pm – 2:30pm
• VPPA | 2:30pm – 2:45pm
• Wiretapping and other interception claims related to use of analytic tools on websites | 2:45pm – 3:00pm

Break | 3:00pm – 3:10pm

Session II – A 2023 Guide to U.S. Data Privacy Laws: Organizational risks and compliance | 3:10pm – 4:10pm

• The Current Landscape of Data Privacy Laws | 3:10pm – 4:10pm
  • CCPA/CPRA – California
  • VCDPA – Virginia
  • CPA – Colorado
  • UCPA – Utah
  • CTDPA – Connecticut
• Enforcement | 3:10pm – 4:10pm
  • Enforcement Agencies
  • Investigation Authority and Fines
  • Recent News/Cases/Examples
• Key Steps for Organizational Compliance | 3:40pm – 3:55pm
• Briefing on Biometric Privacy Laws | 3:55pm – 4:10pm