MIAMI – A California woman has filed a proposed class action lawsuit against international law firm Greenberg Traurig over a September data breach involving current and former clients.
Plaintiff Kimberly Farrar filed her complaint last month in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
According to the 49-page complaint, Farrar was a victim of the law firm’s data breach that has been linked to SilentRansomGroup. The extortion group claimed the compromise Sept. 2-3, with regulatory notices filed to various state attorneys general starting Sept. 8. Afterwards, it posted a limited number of firm documents on the dark web.
Farrar claims defendant Greenberg Traurig held in its possession certain personally identifiable information, or PII, of current and former clients, including herself.
The firm has offices across 51 locations in the U.S., the Middle East, Latin America, and Asia, including Miami, Florida.
“The Data Breach resulted from Defendant’s failure to implement adequate and reasonable cyber-security procedures and protocols necessary to protect individuals’ Private Information with which they were entrusted in the course of their client relationships with Defendant,” the proposed class action states.
Farrar claims she brought the lawsuit on behalf of those similarly situated to address Greenberg Traurig’s “inadequate safeguarding” of their private information that it collected and maintained.
The class action also takes aim at the defendant’s failing to provide timely and adequate notice to Farrar and other class members that their information had been disclosed to an unauthorized third party and precisely what type of information was disclosed.
“Defendant maintained the Private Information in a reckless manner,” the suit states.
“Defendant, through its employees, disregarded the rights of Plaintiff and Class Members (defined below) by, among other things, intentionally, willfully, recklessly, or negligently failing to take adequate and reasonable measures to ensure its systems and the files maintained on them were protected against unauthorized access and exfiltration.”
Farrar alleges the firm failed to detect and prevent an unauthorized individual from obtaining files containing her private information.
“Had Defendant implemented reasonable access controls and monitoring, the Data Breach would have been prevented,” the suit states.
“Plaintiff’s and Class Members’ identities are now at risk because of Defendant’s negligent conduct since the Private Information that Defendant collected and maintained is now in the hands of data thieves.”
Because of the breach, Farrar contends she and the class members have been exposed to a “heightened and imminent” risk of fraud and identity theft.
“Plaintiff and Class Members must now and in the future closely monitor their financial accounts to guard against identity theft,” the complaint states.
In addition, they may also incur out-of-pocket costs to purchase credit monitoring services, credit freezes, credit reports, or other protective measures to deter and detect identity theft, she alleges.
According to Farrar’s complaint, the exact number and identities of class members are unknown, but that such information is in the firm’s possession and “ascertainable through its records.”
The proposed class action seeks at this time: compensatory damages, reimbursement of out-of-pocket costs, and injunctive relief, including improvements to Greenberg Traurig’s data security systems, future annual audits, and adequate credit monitoring services funded by the firm.
Miami law firm Shamis & Gentile PA is counsel for the plaintiff and proposed class.
