December 5, 2023
Earlier this year a separate group of litigators at Jenner & Block landed runner-up honors after the Fourth Circuit reversed a decision certifying damages classes against client Marriott International Inc. in the massive data breach MDL facing the hotel chain, as did lawyers at Kirkland & Ellis who got a decision reversing a related decision certifying an issue class against IT service provider Accenture LLP. So it’s only fair now that the district court recertified the classes that runners-up honors should go to lead plaintiffs counsel—Amy Keller of DiCello Levitt, James Pizzirusso of Hausfeld and Andrew Friedman of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll. U.S. District Judge John Preston Bailey of the Northern District of West Virginia held last week that Marriott shouldn’t be allowed to “cherry-pick the rules” of a choice of law and venue provisions in contracts with Starwood guests in attempts to enforce a class action waiver.