Edelson PC is an American plaintiffs' law firm that focuses on public client investigations,

class actions A class action, also known as a class-action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member or members of that group. The class action ...

mass tort A mass tort is a civil action involving numerous plaintiffs against one or a few defendants in state or federal court. The lawsuits arise out of the defendants causing numerous injuries through the same or similar act of harm (e.g. a prescription dr ...

, and

consumer protection Consumer protection is the practice of safeguarding buyers of goods and services, and the public, against unfair practices in the marketplace. Consumer protection measures are often established by law. Such laws are intended to prevent business ...

laws. Edelson’s cases include class action settlements against

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

for $650 million (2021), social casino apps for nearly $200 million (2021), and a $925 million verdict against

ViSalus Vi (formerly ViSalus Sciences) is an American multilevel marketing (MLM) company based in Los Angeles, California, with offices in downtown Detroit, Michigan. The company is mostly known for the Body by Vi 90-Day Challenge platform. The company ...

(2020.)

Firm history

Edelson PC was founded in 2007 in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and opened an office in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

in 2015.

Practice areas

Privacy Edelson has successfully litigated against Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Google for violating consumer privacy laws by improperly storing users' search, contact, and

biometric Biometrics are body measurements and calculations related to human characteristics. Biometric authentication (or realistic authentication) is used in computer science as a form of identification and access control. It is also used to identify in ...

data. Consumer fraud Edelson PC has prosecuted more than 200 large-scale class and mass actions on behalf of victims of consumer fraud or unfair business practices, including the

Thomas the Tank Engine Thomas the Tank Engine is an anthropomorphised fictional tank locomotive in the British ''Railway Series'' books by Wilbert Awdry and his son, Christopher, published from 1945. He became the most popular and famous character in the series, a ...

lead paint class action, the

AT&T AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...

mobile content class action, the home equity credit reduction cases, and privacy class actions involving

T-Mobile T-Mobile is the brand name used by some of the mobile communications subsidiaries of the German telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom AG in the Czech Republic (T-Mobile Czech Republic), Poland (T-Mobile Polska), the United States (T-Mobile ...

, and

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

. Mass tort cases Edelson PC is co-lead counsel in the NCAA personal injury concussion litigation brought against the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

, its member institutions, and its conferences on behalf of college football players who allege the NCAA failed to protect them from concussions and brain damage, including CTE. There are more than 369 total lawsuits filed. Edelson PC leads a number of actions on behalf of governmental entities and labor unions in lawsuits against drug manufacturers and distributors over the

opioid epidemic The opioid epidemic, also referred to as the opioid crisis, is the rapid increase in the overuse, misuse/abuse, and overdose deaths attributed either in part or in whole to the class of drugs opiates/opioids since the 1990s. It includes the sign ...

. Representative cases Edelson PC filed numerous class actions arising in the aftermath of the federal bailouts of US banks (e.g.,

Citibank Citibank, N. A. (N. A. stands for " National Association") is the primary U.S. banking subsidiary of financial services multinational Citigroup. Citibank was founded in 1812 as the City Bank of New York, and later became First National City ...

Chase Chase or CHASE may refer to: Businesses * Chase Bank, a national bank based in New York City, New York * Chase Aircraft (1943–1954), a defunct American aircraft manufacturing company * Chase Coaches, a defunct bus operator in England * Chase Co ...

, and

Wells Fargo Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational financial services company with corporate headquarters in San Francisco, California; operational headquarters in Manhattan; and managerial offices throughout the United States and intern ...

). The lawsuits alleged the banks unlawfully suspended home credit lines based on pre-textual reasons, and that certain banks failed to honor loan modification programs. Edelson PC achieved the first federal appellate decision in the country recognizing the right of Wells Fargo borrowers to enforce

HAMP Hepcidin is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''HAMP'' gene. Hepcidin is a key regulator of the entry of iron into the circulation in mammals. During conditions in which the hepcidin level is abnormally high, such as inflammation, se ...

trial plans under state law. The eventual settlements exceeded $3 billion in home equity lines of credit. Jay Edelson was appointed co-lead counsel in lead paint recall litigation involving Thomas the Tank toy trains. Edelson PC eventually reached a settlement valued at over $30 million, which provided the class with full cash refunds and reimbursement of certain costs related to blood testing. Edelson PC prosecuted more than 100 cases on behalf of consumers who allegedly received unauthorized charges on their mobile phone bills, settling numerous nationwide class actions, including against industry leader

AT&T Mobility AT&T Mobility LLC, also known as AT&T Wireless and marketed as simply AT&T, is an American telecommunications company. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T Inc. and provides wireless services in the United States. AT&T Mobility is the thi ...

, collectively worth more than $100 million. Class action settlements Jay Edelson and Edelson PC have regularly raised public concern regarding the conduct of plaintiffs’ attorneys and objected to a number of settlements. Edelson has objected to or intervened in settlements with

TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version ...

, the NCAA,

Neiman Marcus Neiman Marcus Group, Inc. is an American integrated luxury retailer headquartered in Dallas, Texas, which owns Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Horchow, and Last Call. Since September 2021, NMG has been owned by a group of investment compani ...

, and

Equifax Equifax Inc. is an American multinational consumer credit reporting agency headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia and is one of the three largest consumer credit reporting agencies, along with Experian and TransUnion (together known as the "Big Thr ...

. The firm also brought a

RICO The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act is a United States federal law that provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization. RICO was en ...

lawsuit against a “professional class-action objector” raising allegations of

extortion Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, ...

, which resulted in a judgment entered against attorney Christopher Bandas, prohibiting him from practicing law in the state of Illinois and limiting his ability to object to class action settlements in federal or state court. In December 2020, the firm filed a lawsuit against Tom Girardi, the law firm of Girardi & Keese, and Erika Girardi, among others, alleging that Girardi had misappropriated client funds. Following the filing of that lawsuit, numerous other allegations against Tom Girardi came to light, and he and his law firm thereafter filed for bankruptcy.

Notable activities

'' Spokeo v. Robins'': Edelson PC successfully argued to the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

that a plaintiff can have standing under Article III of the U.S. Constitution by alleging that a website published inaccurate information about him, in violation of the

Fair Credit Reporting Act The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), 15 U.S.C. § 1681 ''et seq'', is U.S. Federal Government legislation enacted to promote the accuracy, fairness, and privacy of consumer information contained in the files of consumer reporting agencies. It ...

. ''Birchmeier v. Caribbean Cruise Lines, et al.:'' In the largest

Telephone Consumer Protection Act The Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (TCPA) was passed by the United States Congress in 1991 and signed into law by President George H. W. Bush as Public Law 102-243. It amended the Communications Act of 1934. The TCPA is codified as ...

settlement to date, Edelson PC secured $76 million in relief for a class of consumers alleged to have been spammed with telemarketing calls. ''Mullen v. GLV, Inc., et al:'' Edelson PC brought a

class action A class action, also known as a class-action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member or members of that group. The class actio ...

on behalf of several parents for failure to disclose

sexual abuse Sexual abuse or sex abuse, also referred to as molestation, is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using force or by taking advantage of another. Molestation often refers to an instance of sexual assa ...

occurring within Sports Performance Volleyball Club. Its owners, Rick and Cheryl Butler, are charged with withholding and misrepresented information about the sexual abuse allegations against Rick Butler. Edelson PC represented that it would donate any attorney's fees received in the case to charity. The case is one of the first

cases to be granted

status. ''Harris, et al. v. comScore, Inc.:'' Edelson PC was appointed class counsel in a suit alleging improper data collecting practices by one of the world's largest internet analytics companies and successfully certified a class estimated by several sources to be the largest privacy case ever certified on an adversarial basis. ''In re Facebook Privacy Litigation:'' Edelson PC filed the first of its kind class action against Facebook under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act. The lawsuit alleges that Facebook collected facial recognition data from its users without authorization. Edelson PC additionally represents governmental entities in a variety of privacy lawsuits. For example, Edelson PC brought a lawsuit on behalf of the

City of Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and the

Cook County State's Attorney's Office The Cook County State's Attorney functions as the state of Illinois's district attorney for Cook County, Illinois, and heads the second-largest prosecutor's office in the United States. The office has over 700 attorneys and 1,100 employees. In ad ...

against

Uber Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber), based in San Francisco, provides mobility as a service, ride-hailing (allowing users to book a car and driver to transport them in a way similar to a taxi), food delivery (Uber Eats and Postmates), package ...

related to reports of a data breach. Additionally, Edelson PC filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Cook County State's Attorney's Office in the first filed government action against Facebook and

Cambridge Analytica Cambridge Analytica Ltd (CA), previously known as SCL USA, was a British political consulting firm that came to prominence through the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal. It was started in 2013, as a subsidiary of the private intelli ...

stemming from reports they allegedly shared and collected consumer data for purposes related to the

2016 US Presidential Election The 2016 United States presidential election was the 58th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 8, 2016. The Republican ticket of businessman Donald Trump and Indiana governor Mike Pence defeated the Democratic ticket ...

Firm culture

Edelson PC has drawn attention in the legal community by cultivating the feel of a startup. The dress code is casual and the Chicago offices have an indoor volleyball court,

golf simulator Indoor golf is an umbrella term for all activities in golf which can be carried out indoors. Venues include indoor driving ranges, chipping areas, putting greens, machines and home golf simulators. Many of these indoor facilities are businesses t ...

, a

ping pong Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

table, a

pool table A billiard table or billiards table is a bounded table on which cue sports are played. In the modern era, all billiards tables (whether for carom billiards, pool, pyramid or snooker) provide a flat surface usually made of quarried slate, that i ...

and a large mural of MCs in the midst of a rap battle. The firm has also adopted an unconventional training system of guided independence where everyone is expected to make their own decisions, take responsibility for moving cases forward, and contribute to case management and strategy. Even summer associates are given the respect and responsibility of an attorney. Edelson's prank culture has featured elaborate jokes such as hiring an actor to play an unruly law student employing a polar bear as an attorney, and commissioning a musical parody of

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...

written by Edelson PC lawyers.

References

External links

edelson.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Edelson PC Law firms based in Chicago