IN THE HEADLINES
► Cannata, O’Toole, Fickes & Almazan: Karl Olson (entertainment law – motion pictures and television; entertainment law – music; litigation – First Amendment, 2006) prepared an amicus brief for FAC in the case Stevenson v.
► Hausfeld: Bonny E. Sweeney (litigation – antitrust, 2018), Michael D. Hausfeld, Reena A. Gambhir, Timothy S. Kearns, Nathaniel C. Giddings, and Sarah R. LaFreniere are working on a case, In re Foreign Exchange Benchmark Rates Antitrust Litigation, 13-cv-7789 (S.D.N.Y.), that just “moved for preliminary approval of settlements with five banks,” reports Whittier Daily News. The estimated settlements, on behalf of foreign exchange investors, total $111,200,000 and include Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Morgan Stanley, RBC Capital Markets, Société Générale, and Standard Chartered Bank. Upon final approval, the settlement total would amount to over
$2.1 billion.
► Law Offices of Doron Weinberg: Doron Weinberg (criminal defense: general practice; criminal defense: white-collar, 1983) is the attorney for Mark Peterson, a former Contra Costa County district attorney who has been banned from practicing law and may face disbarment. Peterson pleaded no contest to perjury over using campaign funds for personal use. Over $66,000 of his campaign money was spent on personal expenses, such as movie tickets and clothing.
► Swanson & McNamara: Mary McNamara (criminal defense: white-collar, 2008) was
HONORABLE MENTION
► Steptoe & Johnson has moved its Palo Alto office to San Francisco. They were located in Northern California since January 2014.
► Andrews Lagasse Branch & Bell: Peter J. Ippolito (construction law; litigation – construction, 2006) will become of counsel at the firm’s San Diego office. Ippolito was previously at Dentons and had worked as an assistant general counsel to the United States Army Corps of Engineers.
ITN FEATURE
Lieff Cabraser and Carney Bates & Pulliam Files Class Action Lawsuits against The Walt Disney Company and Viacom
Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein: Michael W. Sobol (mass tort litigation/class actions – plaintiffs; product liability litigation – plaintiffs, 2013) and his firm alongside Carney Bates & Pulliam have filed a federal
A mother and her child allege that these companies included on the lawsuit violate privacy protection laws since they export children’s personal information from mobile games to advertisers. It further asserts that this is a violation since there is no request for parental consent, which is required by federal and state law.
The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) was enacted by Congress to protect children online. It allows parents to stop developers and third-party advertisers from mining their children’s identifying information and profiting from it, says KMIR.
Regarding the lawsuit and the COPPA laws that are being violated, Sobol says, “As a company long-engaged in the practice of engaging—and profiting from—children, Disney needs to make sure its games and apps comply with the law. They and the companies they work with always have to obtain verifiable parental consent before extracting kids’ data from their mobile devices when kids play Disney’s mobile apps.”
Further, he says in regards to Viacom’s role in the lawsuit, “With Viacom's focus on children as their audience for entertainment but also profit, Viacom has a fundamental obligation to make sure their games and apps—especially Nickelodeon games and apps—comply with child data and child privacy law. They and the companies they work with must obtain verifiable parental consent before extracting kids’ data from their mobile devices when kids play Nickelodeon games.”