Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) Education Conference

Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA)

Speaking Engagement | October.26.2021

Virtual Conference

Partners Doug Meal and Seth Harrington led a panel at the Retail Industry Leaders Association Education Conference on litigation strategy best practices for fighting back against credit card company claims following cyber attacks.

Education: Beating The Credit Cards At Their Own Game
As if the harm caused by a cyber attack isn’t significant enough, credit card companies invariably add insult to injury by utilizing an arcane process to impose tens of millions of dollars of fines on companies that have been breached. Challenging these fines is notoriously difficult but one retailer recently succeeded with a groundbreaking win. Learn from the team who achieved this victory about the strategy and the decision so that you can be prepared to fight back if/when your company is breached.

  • Doug Meal, Partner, Orrick
  • Seth Harrington, Partner, Orrick
  • John Henrich, General Counsel, Sally Beauty Holdings, Inc.
Douglas H. Meal

Practice:

  • Technology & Innovation Sector
  • Finance Sector
  • 网络、隐私与数据创新
  • 政府调查与执法行动
  • 审判
  • 集体诉讼抗辩
  • Litigation and IP
  • 复杂诉讼与争议解决

Douglas H. Meal 合伙人

Boston

Seasoned trial lawyer Doug Meal defends clients targeted by litigation and government investigations stemming from major privacy and cybersecurity incidents. According to Chambers USA, clients select Doug because "[h]e is the premier expert in this field and knows how to run a breach response process from A to Z”; is “extremely experienced [and] can give immediate advice off the top of his head"; "has been in court through trials and negotiations, all aspects of the litigation, and is highly effective in all of them"; and "is good to work with, personable and very authoritative." This year, clients said, "I would trust him with my life if I ran into a litigation"; "Doug is extremely calm and has a way of presenting and explaining problems which makes you feel empowered to do your job"; and "He has great experience in this field and is a solid rock in litigation." Based on client assessments like these, Chambers USA has named Doug as the first and only “Band 1” litigator in the Privacy and Data Security category, describing him as the “market leader,” being “regarded by market sources as the leading privacy litigator in the USA” and “the dean of the data breach litigation Bar." 

As the lead outside lawyer handling claims and/or regulatory investigations stemming from the data security breaches suffered by Target, Neiman Marcus, The Home Depot, Hilton Worldwide, Landry’s, Arby’s, Shopify, Chegg, Supervalu, Sally Beauty, Sony, Heartland Payment Systems, TJ Maxx, Hannaford Brothers, Aldo, Genesco, and Wyndham Hotels—some of the most highly publicized breaches in recent years—Doug has become the national leader in defending companies that suffer breaches involving consumer information against the ensuing claims and regulatory investigations. Doug’s recent successes include leading the team that prevailed in the closely watched LabMD v. FTC litigation, convincing the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit to become the first court ever to overturn a cybersecurity enforcement action by the FTC.

Doug has been recognized four times as one of The Cybersecurity Docket’s Incident Response 40—a list of the top 40 incident response lawyers in the United States. He is also a five-time Law360 Privacy MVP.

Seth Harrington

Practice:

  • Technology & Innovation Sector
  • Finance Sector
  • 网络、隐私与数据创新
  • Litigation and IP
  • 银行与融资
  • 保险理赔
  • 复杂诉讼与争议解决
  • 政府调查与执法行动
  • California Consumer Privacy Act
  • 审判

Seth Harrington 合伙人

Boston

Seth Harrington is an experienced litigator who focuses on defending clients against class action litigation and regulatory investigations that arise in connection with a cybersecurity incident or data privacy matter. Clients turn to Seth to help navigate the wide array of legal issues that arise in the response to and investigation of an incident, having represented companies in connection with some of the most significant cybersecurity breaches involving consumer information.

When confronted with a cybersecurity incident, companies call on Seth to advise on incident response and crisis management in anticipation of litigation. Leveraging his years of experience leading forensic investigations and defending clients in litigation, Seth also advises clients on cyber insurance and the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard.

Seth also defends clients in connection with litigation in class action and other litigation, including insurance and commercial disputes.