June 13, 2024
Douglas J. McNamara named to the three-person Interim Class Counsel leadership team.
WASHINGTON, DC – Magistrate Judge Brenda Weksler of the United States District Court for the District of Nevada appointed Douglas J. McNamara, a partner in Cohen Milstein’s Consumer Protection practice and Data Breach & Cybersecurity Litigation team, as one of three Interim Co-Lead Class Counsel, to oversee In Re: Data Breach Security Litigation Against Caesars Entertainment, Inc., a data breach class action arising from a cyberattack impacting members of the loyalty program at Caesars Entertainment, which operates eight hotel casinos in Las Vegas.
The data breach, which was discovered on September 7, 2023, was allegedly perpetrated by a cybercriminal group called “Scattered Spider,” which infiltrated an IT vendor of Caesar Entertainment through social engineering. As a result, the group was allegedly able to download the six-terabyte Caesars’ loyalty program member database, which included personal identifiable information (“PII”) of more than 65 million rewards program members, including Social Security numbers, drivers’ license information, passport numbers, birthdates, purchase information, gaming activity information, biometric information, and other sensitive data. The group then demanded a $30 million ransom, of which Caesars reportedly paid half.
Plaintiffs, who are members of Caesars’ loyalty program, allege that the breach was the result of Caesars negligence in managing its data security protocol and that customers were not informed of the issue in a timely manner. Specifically, plaintiffs claim that despite Caesars disclosing the attack in a September 14 Securities Exchange Commission filing, Caesars did not explain the breadth of the breach to the SEC.
“I’m incredibly honored by Judge Weksler’s appointment. She had a number of excellent data breach litigators to select from,” said Doug McNamara, a partner in Cohen Milstein’s Consumer Protection practice and Data Breach & Cybersecurity Litigation team.
McNamara is widely recognized for his class action expertise in data breach and false advertising litigation. He currently serves as co-lead interim class counsel in In re MOVEit Data Breach Litigation and In re MGM Resorts International Data Breach Litigation. He is also on the steering committee and leadership teams ofIn re Blackbaud, Inc., Customer Data Breach Litigation.
The three-member court-appointed Interim Co-Lead Class Counsel leadership team also includes the law firms of Morgan & Morgan and Dicello Leavitt LLP.
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