CaseyGerry is proud to announce that partner and head of complex litigation, Gayle M. Blatt has been appointed Co-Lead Counsel in the multi-district litigation arising out of the data breach affecting consumers of 23andMe, Inc. Forty class action lawsuits filed were centralized in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California by the Judicial Panel on Multi-District Litigation – In Re: 23andMe, Inc. Customer Data Security Breach Litigation.
The lawsuits were filed on behalf of approximately seven million 23andMe customers whose information was exposed in a massive data security breach that was announced on October 6, 2023. The exposed information included highly personal and identifiable details, with a concerning emphasis on data from individuals of Chinese descent and Ashkenazi Jews. The exposed genetic information also included names, sex, date of birth, DNA relatives, family tree, and geographic information.
23andMe is a genetic testing company that offers direct-to-consumer genetic testing services. The company’s data bank includes highly sensitive personal, identifiable, and health-related information of over 14 million people.
Gayle was appointed Co-Lead by the Honorable Judge Edward M. Chen of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, to oversee the representation of Plaintiffs and class members against 23andMe for its alleged failure to protect the highly sensitive information at issue.
23andMe first announced the security breach in October 2023 by sending emails to those whose information may have been compromised and in a blog post on their website announcing the breach. However, investigations later revealed that the company was made aware of the breach several months earlier but did not act on the warning. In August 2023, 23andMe had been alerted to the sale of their customer data on the dark web.
Gayle is honored to serve in this role and brings a wealth of experience in high-stakes data breach litigation that will be an asset in securing justice for those harmed and who may continue to face ongoing risks related to such a sensitive data breach.
Gayle has held numerous lead positions in similar lawsuits. She was appointed to the five-member Plaintiffs Executive Committee in the massive Yahoo! Data breach litigation and was the only California attorney to serve on the committee. She serves as Interim Co-Lead Counsel in In re: Netgain Technology, LLC Consumer Data Breach Litigation; Co-lead Class Counsel in DeSue v. 20/20 Eye Care Network Data Breach, Interim Co-Lead Counsel in In re: US Fertility, LLC Data Security Litigation, and also served as Interim Lead Counsel in Pfeiffer et al v. RadNet, Inc., as well as others.
We are incredibly honored that Gayle continues to be recognized for her legal acuity in the area of class action litigation and we stand in strong support of her efforts to hold companies accountable for failing to protect their customers’ sensitive information.
