Understanding Plaintiffs' Strategy Key to Defending Class Actions, Trask Tells Bloomberg Law

Defense lawyers have known for years that timing matters for plaintiffs’ attorneys when filing class action lawsuits.

Bloomberg Law reported on a case study outlining a major hotel chain’s data breach. It found the earlier plaintiffs’ attorneys filed, the more likely they were to be chosen for leadership positions overseeing multidistrict litigation.

Shook Of Counsel Andrew Trask said, “Often the first firm to file could be further along in the litigation than later filers in terms of getting discovery requests going and fighting dismissal attempts.” Trask said plaintiffs’ attorneys could also benefit from the early publicity.

Trask focuses his practice on class action and complex litigation in various industries, including the automotive industry and financial services. He has co-authored several books on class actions, including The Class Action Playbook and Betting the Company: Complex Negotiation Strategies in Law & Business. Trask also writes on class-action related news on Twitter @ClassStrategist, and has testified before Congress on potential class action reforms.

“The people who have the most clients tend to be the ones who are elevated to the leadership positions,” Trask said. “That can be the best way of moving up for someone who doesn’t have the experience, expertise, or reputation of more sophisticated firms.”

Trask will provide a Class Action Law-Update at Shook’s Annual Update on the Law CLE, June 13, 2019. In addition, Adrienne Byard, Harley Ratliff, Jordan Baehr and Eric Anielak will focus on the volume of mass tort lawsuits and other issues during their presentation, “Busier Than a Centipede at a Toe-Counting Contest: Exponential Mass Tort Case Filing Volume as a Function of Bogus Trigger Dates, States’ Statutes of Limitations and Profit Potential.”