Susman Godfrey has been named a Practice Group of The Year by Law360 in both Environmental Litigation and Cybersecurity & Privacy Litigation following a year marked with he wins and significant new cases in both areas of law.
Landmark Wins in Environmental Litigation
One of the firm’s most significant wins in environmental litigation in 2021 was securing preliminary approval of a landmark $626 million settlement with multiple governmental defendants in the Flint Water Crisis Litigation. In addition to the Flint case, the firm continued to serve as co-lead counsel defending Chevron entities in numerous global climate change lawsuits pending across the country and most recently secured affirmation from the Second Circuit of the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by the City of New York. Other notable representations include Total Petrochemicals & Refining, Inc. and Total Specialties USA, Inc. in a lawsuit arising from the 2019 fire at International Terminals Company’s (ITC) tank farm in Deer Park, Texas and serving as co-lead counsel for a class of residents from Wilmington, North Carolina in a class action in the E.D.N.C. against DuPont and Chemours arising from their dumping GenX and other chemicals in the Cape Fear River and contaminating the local water supply.
Precedent Setting Matters in Cybersecurity & Privacy Law
In 2021 Susman Godfrey not only secured groundbreaking wins in the cybersecurity and privacy litigation sector, but also filed and worked on litigation that will shape the way laws are written to build parameters around this burgeoning area. In October 2021 Susman Godfrey and co-counsel secured preliminary approval of a $92 million litigation-wide settlement for plaintiffs who alleged that TikTok violated users’ privacy in In re: TikTok Inc. Consumer Privacy Litigation. The firm also made waves in 2021 when it filed class action lawsuits against PornHub parent company, MindGeek, and Reddit over allegations that the companies violated federal sex trafficking and child pornography laws by knowingly posting, enabling the posting of, and profiting from thousands of pornographic videos featuring persons under the age of 18. The firm was spotlighted in 2021 for its leadership on In re Blackbaud Inc. Customer Data Security Breach Litigation, a case involving the massive data breach cloud computing provider, Blackbaud. The firm also pushed forward with an action against Google for misrepresenting its privacy settings when users employ “Incognito Mode.” This lawsuit—estimated by the news to be valued at over $5B—is a ground-breaking piece of litigation that seeks to protect the privacy interests of hundreds of millions of Americans.
The firm is one of just one of five winners in each of the respective categories. Law360 will publish a profile of Susman Godfrey’s work in each area in the coming weeks.
