Lawyers Appointed to Lead Consumer Suits Over Data Breach by Marriott

Fourteen lawyers have been appointed by a federal judge in Maryland to lead class actions brought by consumers over Marriott Inc.’s data breach last year.

The appointment of the leadership team and others to lead cases against the Marriott brought by financial institutions and shareholders was carried out by Judge Paul Grimm of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. Andrew Friedman, a partner at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll in Washington, D.C.; Amy Keller of Chicago’s DiCello Levitt; and James Pizzirusso, a partner at Hausfeld in Washington, D.C. are among those appointed as co-lead counsel.

“We’re honored to be appointed co-lead class counsel on this important case,” Friedman wrote in his emailed statement. “Starwood, and later, Marriott took more than four years to discover the breach, allowing the unprecedented theft of hundreds of millions of their customers’ most sensitive data. We look forward to helping the victims of this data breach hold Marriott accountable for its actions.”

The breach was announced by Marriott International Inc. Nov. 30 as compromising the personal data of 500 million guests of its Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide properties (Marriott has since lowered that figure to fewer than 383 million). Over 80 lawsuits were filed over the breach. Applications were submitted by over 30 lawyers to spearhead the cases, including four that suggested their own proposed leadership teams.

Apart from consumer suits, a separate leadership team was named by the order for suits brought by financial institutions over the breach.