Attorneys Appointed to Leadership Positions in AT&T Data Breach MDL

The U.S. District Judge presiding over all AT&T data breach lawsuits filed throughout the federal court system has appointed nearly a dozen plaintiffs’ lawyers to serve in various leadership positions in the multidistrict litigation (MDL), representing the interests of millions of individuals now at risk of identity theft and fraud after hackers accessed a database of customer information.

The telecommunications giant has faced a rapidly growing number of class action lawsuits brought by individuals impacted by a massive AT&T data breach disclosed earlier this year, in which hackers obtained the names, addresses, phone numbers, social security numbers, email addresses and other information for more than 70 million current and former customers, which were then released on the Dark Web.

Currently, there are about 70 class action lawsuits pending in federal district courts nationwide against AT&T over the data breach. However, as customers continue to sign up with lawyers for an AT&T data breach lawsuit, the size and scope of the litigation is expected to continue to increase, and AT&T is expected to face massive liability for damages sustained by millions of customers, as a result of cybersecurity failures.

Since each of the claims raise similar allegations that AT&T failed to take adequate steps to protect the personal identifying information of its customers, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) decided in June to centralize the AT&T data breach lawsuits before U.S. District Judge Ada E. Brown in the Northern District of Texas, for coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings.

AT&T Data Breach Attorneys to Serve in MDL Leadership Positions

Shortly after the MDL was established, Judge Brown issued an order inviting AT&T data breach lawyers to apply for a Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee by August 7, which will take certain actions during the pretrial proceedings that benefit all individuals presenting claims.

On August 14, Judge Brown issued a case management order (PDF) appointing 11 different attorneys to serve in leadership positions, including one as plaintiffs’ lead and liaison counsel, four to serve on a Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee and six to serve on the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee.

The appointed AT&T data breach attorneys will be tasked with coordinating status updates for the court, arguing certain pretrial motions, conducting discovery and depositions into common issues that impact all claims, and potentially negotiating a framework for AT&T data breach settlements that may help resolve large numbers of claims.

As part of the coordinated pretrial proceedings, it is expected that Judge Brown will oversee the exchange of information between AT&T and the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee about the circumstances that led to the data breach and the scope of those impacted, as well as rule on certain pretrial rulings that may impact large numbers of claims.

If the parties fail to negotiate AT&T data breach lawsuit payouts for individual customers during the MDL proceedings, the Court may later select a small group of representative cases to serve as early “bellwether” trials, which could help the parties gauge how juries may respond to certain evidence and testimony that is likely to be repeated throughout the litigation, and the average damages that are awarded.