Home Depot Plaintiffs May Use Target’s Lead Counsel

Buoyed by the success of the Target data theft case back in 2013, the main counsels of that case will now be part of the plaintiff’s general counsel in the Home Depot multi-district litigation case regarding that company’s own experience with data hackers between April and September 2014 that left over 56 million credit and debit cards exposed, according to Caroline Simson of Law360.

Following a series of meetings and discussions, the plantiffs, who represent the consumers affected by this breach as well as associated financial institutions, agreed to form a leadership structure that has unanimous support from all counsels. Among those that will be part of the structure include Georgia firms The Barnes Law Group LLC and Harris Penn Lowry LLP, which have experience in customer data breach litigation, as well as Stueve Siegel Hanson LLP and Morgan & Morgan Complex Litigation Group, which formed a key part of Target’s data breach case back in 2013, also a multi-district litigation case.

“The proposed structure includes Roy Barnes and his partner John Bevis of The Barnes Law Group LLC as liaison counsel; and David J. Worley and James M. Evangelista of Harris Penn Lowry LLP, founding partner Norman E. Siegel and Barrett J. Vahle of Stueve Siegel Hanson LLP, and John A. Yanchunis of Morgan & Morgan Complex Litigation Group as the co-lead and interim class counsel in the litigation,” cited Simson. The structure includes most groups that have either dealt directly with the Target case, or who have a history with similar consumer data cases as well as being exclusively plantiff law firms.

The case was centralized by the U.S. Panel on Multidistrict Litigation in December, and will be heard in the United States District Court in the Northern District of Georgia. Home Depot is represented in the consumer cases by King & Spalding LLP, and in the financial institution cases by Alston & Bird LLP.