Defending Companies Whose AI Agents Accessed Others’ Systems: From Incident Response to Dismissal

Renita N. Sharma, Partner | Quinn Emanuel

Renita N. Sharma is a partner in Quinn Emanuel’s New York office whose practice includes data scraping matters at the intersection of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, terms of service violations, and related torts. She argued a remand before the Ninth Circuit for hiQ Labs, Inc., securing an affirmance that the CFAA does not apply to publicly available data, and she advises clients on mitigating legal risk in data aggregation.

• Education & Credentials

Sharma earned her Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School in 2010, where she was a James Kent Scholar and a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and was named Best Individual Oral Advocate in the American Constitution Society Moot Court. She received her Bachelor of Arts, with High Distinction, from the University of Toronto in 2007, studying International Relations and Ethics, Society, and Law. She is admitted to practice in New York, before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

• Recognition & Leadership

Sharma has represented parties in federal and state appellate courts and has been a key member of trial teams in federal and state jury and bench trials and in several arbitrations. Legal 500 USA ranked her a “Recommended Lawyer” in Insurance, Advice to Insurers, in 2024, and Euromoney’s Rising Stars Expert Guide listed her in its Insurance and Reinsurance Expert Listings in 2021.

• Professional Involvement

Sharma’s writing on alternative data includes articles co-authored with Quinn Emanuel colleagues and published by Neudata, including on its Alternative Data News and Insight blog. Her firm profile also features Quinn Emanuel client alerts on the Meta v. Bright Data summary judgment ruling and its significance for the web scraping industry. She is a member of the Canadian American Bar Association.

• Experience

Since joining Quinn Emanuel in 2010, Sharma has handled complex commercial disputes involving data scraping, securities, civil forfeiture, insurance, and bankruptcy matters, within a practice that includes Data Privacy & Security, Class Action and Mass Arbitration, and Securities Enforcement Defense. She obtained dismissal of class action claims against E*TRADE Financial Corp. over payment for order flow and high-frequency trading, represents National General Insurance Company in nationwide class actions arising out of Wells Fargo’s lender-placed insurance program, and represents financial technology companies in multiple SEC matters. She also represents clients in regulatory investigations by the SEC, FINRA, and state and foreign agencies, obtained summary judgment on conspiracy claims against reinsurer National Indemnity in Ford Motor Co. v. National Indemnity (E.D. Va.), and obtained summary judgment for Haymon Sports and CEO Alan Haymon in a $300 million antitrust lawsuit.

Henry E. Hockeimer, Jr., Partner | Ballard Spahr

Henry E. (Hank) Hockeimer, Jr. is a partner in Ballard Spahr’s Philadelphia office, where he leads the firm’s White Collar Defense and Investigations Group and co-leads its State Attorneys General Consumer Finance Response Team. He counsels businesses and individuals under investigation by state and federal authorities, often conducts sensitive internal investigations for corporate and governmental entities, and brings extensive jury trial experience from private practice and from his service as a federal prosecutor.

• Education & Credentials

Hockeimer earned his Juris Doctor from The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law, where he was a Senior Staff Member of the Journal of Contemporary Health Law and Policy, and his Bachelor of Arts from Miami University. He clerked for the Honorable James C. Cacheris of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. He is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, and he speaks Spanish.

• Recognition & Leadership

Chambers USA has recognized Hockeimer for white-collar crime and government investigations in Pennsylvania (2006–2026). Best Lawyers has honored him in Corporate Compliance and White-Collar Criminal Defense since 2013, naming him Philadelphia “Lawyer of the Year” five times. He is also recognized by Legal 500 for Corporate Investigations and White-Collar Criminal Defense and by Lawdragon among its 500 Leading Litigators in America.

• Professional Involvement

Hockeimer is a member of the American Bar Association’s Section on Litigation and of the Criminal Justice Section’s White Collar Crime Committee, where he previously co-chaired the Public Corruption and Extortion Sub-Committee. He has spoken on self-disclosure to DOJ, HHS, and other government agencies and on the Economic Espionage Act, and he authored “Enforcement Trends and What to Do,” a chapter in Managing White Collar Legal Issues (Aspatore Books, 2016). He has taught Trial Advocacy as an adjunct professor at Temple University James E. Beasley School of Law since 2006.

• Experience

Hockeimer’s investigations work includes an internal investigation for the Lower Merion School District into remote monitoring of student laptops, which ended with no criminal charges filed. He has represented technology, pharmaceutical, real estate, and for-profit education clients in State Attorneys General investigations and a large financial institution in DOJ, SEC, and state investigations. As an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Oklahoma City, he tried public corruption, fraud, and domestic terrorism cases and served as Domestic Terrorism Coordinator and as a member of the FBI’s Domestic Terrorism Task Force.

SESSION 1 – The First Thirty Days After a Company’s AI Agent Reaches Third-Party Systems | Henry E. Hockeimer, Jr. | 2:30pm – 3:30pm

This one-hour, defense-side session addresses companies whose AI agents reached systems they do not own. It covers the first thirty days: what to capture before stopping a running agent, how to hold artifacts split between the client and the model vendor, how to rebuild the authorization record under Cal. Civ. Code § 1714.46, when to notify a system owner if no personal data moved, and when to hand facts to white-collar counsel.

BREAK | 3:30pm – 3:40pm

SESSION 2 – Defending Unauthorized-Access and Unfair Competition Claims Against Companies Over Their AI Agents | Renita N. Sharma | 3:40pm – 4:40pm

This one-hour session addresses defending companies against unauthorized-access and UCL claims over their AI agents, from the deployer’s side. It covers architecture mapping after the Sept. 10, 2026 en banc denial in Amazon v. Perplexity, and contesting the knowledge and resource-diversion standing theories in LASST v. OpenAI. It also covers § 1714.46(c) comparative-fault pleading, interference and trespass demurrers, injunction terms, and EO 14409 admissions review.