Litigating to Dismiss: Triage and Posture Across No-Injury Class Actions

Christopher Chorba, Partner | Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP

Chris Chorba is co-chair of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s Class Actions Practice Group. He specializes in defending class actions and complex litigation and has had substantial experience litigating a broad range of complex commercial matters at the trial and appellate level in California and throughout the country, and in multi-district litigation (MDLs). His litigation and counseling experience includes work for companies in every industry, including automotive, beauty/cosmetic, consumer products, education, entertainment, financial services, food and beverage, health care, insurance, life sciences, retail, social media, sports and gaming, technology, telecommunications, and utility/energy. Chris has been recognized in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business and in The Best Lawyers in America for Commercial Litigation.

• Education & Credentials

Chris received his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law in 2001, where he served on the Editorial Board of the Virginia Law Review, after graduating cum laude from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in 1996. He is admitted to practice before all state and federal courts in California, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the Supreme Court of the United States.

• Recognition & Leadership

Beyond his rankings in Chambers USA and The Best Lawyers in America for Commercial Litigation, Benchmark Litigation acknowledges Chris as a “Litigation Star,” Law360 named him a “Class Action MVP,” The National Law Journal identifies him as a “Trailblazer” for his work defending consumer class actions, and Lawdragon recognizes him among its “500 Leading Litigators in America” and “500 Leading Global Litigators.”

• Professional Involvement

Chris serves as Associate Editor of the American Bar Association’s A Practitioner’s Guide to Class Actions, co-authoring its chapters on due process challenges to the class device and on aggregation of penalties, and wrote the chapters on Business & Professions Code sections 17200 and 17500 and the Consumers Legal Remedies Act in California Civil Procedure Before Trial: Claims and Defenses (The Rutter Group). He served as Co-Chair of the Steering Committee for the Cambridge Forum on Defense of Class Action Litigation and speaks frequently on class certification, settlement drafting, and consumer litigation trends.

• Experience

Chris is a nationally recognized authority on class action defense, including claims under California’s Unfair Competition and False Advertising Laws, the Consumers Legal Remedies Act, the Lanham Act, and the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005. His results include denial of Rule 23(b)(2) and (b)(3) certification in a putative class action challenging the accuracy of Facebook’s ad targeting; dismissal with prejudice of all statutory and common law fraud claims in nationwide multidistrict litigation (MDL 2827) over flagship smartphone devices, followed by a negotiated nationwide class settlement; dismissal of COPPA and California privacy claims against an entertainment company over YouTube video placement; decertification of a Telephone Consumer Protection Act class against a major technology company followed by summary judgment on the automatic telephone dialing system question; defeat of certification under every prong of Rule 23 in overpayment recovery class actions against a major health insurer; dismissal with prejudice of novel “car hacking” claims against Toyota for lack of Article III standing, defended on appeal; and appellate reversals of judgments totaling $295 million in three certified class actions.

Wesley Sze, Partner | Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP

Wesley Sze is a litigation partner in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s Class Actions Practice Group. Wesley represents leading companies in a wide range of complex litigation, with a focus on defending technology clients in class action and multidistrict litigation. He regularly advises and represents clients in litigation involving state and federal privacy laws, consumer protection statutes, and cybersecurity incidents. Wesley has been recognized by Law360 as a 2025 “Rising Star” in Class Actions and is also featured in Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch® in America for Appellate Practice.

• Education & Credentials

Wesley received his J.D. from Stanford Law School in 2015, where he served as a Technical Managing Editor and Notes Editor of the Stanford Law Review; his note received the 2016 Scribes Law-Review Award for the best student-written article in a law review or journal. He earned his B.A. in Economics from the University of British Columbia in 2011, graduating as class valedictorian, and conducted monetary policy research at the Bank of Canada before law school. He is a member of the State Bar of California and is admitted in the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Ninth and Tenth Circuits and the U.S. District Courts for the Northern, Central, and Southern Districts of California.

• Recognition & Leadership

Law360 named Wesley a 2025 “Rising Star” in Class Actions, and Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in America features him for Appellate Practice. At Gibson Dunn he practices in the Litigation Department as a member of the Class Actions; Privacy, Cybersecurity, and Data Innovation; and Securities Litigation Practice Groups.

• Professional Involvement

Wesley maintains an active pro bono practice focused on immigrant rights and constitutional litigation. He has represented asylum seekers at every stage of the immigration process, won a preliminary injunction ordering the immediate reunification of an asylum seeker and her three-year-old son separated at the U.S.-Mexico border, and obtained an appellate order reversing the illegal seizure of veteran disability benefits from an inmate trust account.

• Experience

Wesley’s representations include defending a technology company in multidistrict class action litigation over its flagship mobile device; defending technology companies in class actions arising from alleged data security incidents; representing a cloud software provider in the first putative securities class action based on a direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange; and representing a cryptocurrency exchange in crypto-asset recovery litigation. He obtained a published California Court of Appeal opinion affirming dismissal of a putative “trespass to chattels” class action, secured decertification of a Telephone Consumer Protection Act class of more than 320,000 individuals, and won multiple orders quashing subpoenas that sought to unmask an anonymous blogger in violation of the First Amendment.

Erica Rutner, Member | Cozen O’Connor

As a highly experienced commercial litigator, Erica focuses her practice primarily on the defense of consumer class actions. Erica has successfully managed and defended large scale class actions in federal and state jurisdictions across the country, ranging from claims involving consumer protection and privacy, data breach, products liability, health care, and discrimination. Drawing on her extensive experience defending both publicly traded and private companies in numerous “bet the company” cases, Erica has gained a steadfast track-record of securing dismissals, defeating class certification, obtaining summary judgment, and negotiating highly favorable class settlements for her clients. Erica is also intimately familiar with strategies for litigating complex class actions in an efficient and economical manner, ensuring that clients benefit from both cost-effective and high-quality representation. In addition, Erica proactively advises clients on long term risk mitigation strategies and works with companies to minimize future class action exposure.

• Education & Credentials

Erica earned her B.A., summa cum laude, from Columbia University in 2006 and her J.D., summa cum laude, from the University of Miami School of Law in 2009, where she graduated Order of the Coif and was a member of the University of Miami Law Review. She is admitted to the Florida and California bars, the U.S. District Courts for the Middle, Northern, and Southern Districts of Florida and the Central, Southern, Northern, and Eastern Districts of California, and the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Ninth and Eleventh Circuits.

• Recognition & Leadership

Erica serves as the office managing partner of Cozen O’Connor’s Fort Lauderdale office. Florida Trend’s Legal Elite has named her among its Notable Women Leaders in Law from 2023 through 2025, the South Florida Legal Guide listed her among its Top Lawyers in 2021, and the Daily Business Review has featured her in Profiles in Law and On the Rise.

• Professional Involvement

Erica serves as co-chair of a subcommittee to the American Bar Association’s Mass Torts Committee and chaired the committee’s Young Lawyers Division. She is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, a former member of the executive editorial board of the Florida Bar Journal, and a member of the Broward County Bar Association and the Florida Association for Women Lawyers.

• Experience

Erica has managed and defended large-scale class actions in federal and state jurisdictions across the country, spanning consumer protection and privacy, data breach, products liability, health care, and discrimination claims, for both publicly traded and private companies. She regularly presents and publishes on key issues in consumer class action defense, including consumer standing, defect manifestation, ascertainability, and successive class action litigation, and advises clients on long-term strategies to minimize future class action exposure.

SESSION 1 – Triaging the No-Injury Class Action: Choosing Whether to Litigate for Dismissal | 1:00pm – 2:00pm

This session equips defense attorneys with a structured framework for triaging no-injury class actions at intake, before a defense strategy is locked in. Attendees will learn how to map their forum against the three-way circuit split on uninjured class members, assess named-plaintiff injury under TransUnion and its progeny, and weigh the dismiss-or-settle decision against settlement inflation risk, discovery posture, and the finality trap. Attorneys leave with a repeatable early-case decision tree applicable across consumer products, data privacy, and statutory-damage class litigation.

BREAK | 2:00pm – 2:10pm

SESSION 2 – Sequencing the Threshold Motions and Driving the Early Exit | 2:10pm – 3:10pm

This session covers the procedural mechanics of building and sequencing an early-dismissal motion practice in no-injury class actions, from the 12(b)(1)/12(b)(6) threshold decision through preemptive Rule 23 denial motions and motions to strike class allegations. Attendees will learn how the unresolved three-way circuit split on uninjured class members shapes motion sequencing strategy, how to embed Article III standing arguments within Rule 23 predominance, and how to manage finality and preclusion risks created by jurisdictional versus merits dismissals. Attorneys leave with an integrated motion playbook tied to current 2025–2026 decisional law.