Tiffany Cheung

Cheung is co-chair of Morrison & Foerster’s 450-lawyer global litigation department, the former co-chair of the firm’s class actions and mass torts practice group and one of 28 lawyers on the firm’s women’s strategy committee.

Following clerkships for federal judges in Arizona and Washington, D.C., she joined MoFo in 2002. “The clients and matters we attract are at the height of innovation,” Cheung said. “I have been surrounded by amazing colleagues and team member since I got here. The teams I work with deserve all the credit for the incredible work we have done together.”

The clients Cheung has represented include Warner Music Group, Uber Technologies Inc., McKesson Corp. and Apple Inc.

A current key focus is on the cases beginning to arise under California’s Consumer Privacy Act. Cheung is representing one major software company in the first potential class action filed under the CCPA. It alleges that the company was responsible for a data security incident on its customer ecommerce platform that led to the exfiltration of personal information.

As a first of its kind case, it raises issues of first impression in interpreting the new privacy law. The significant statutory penalties potentially available under the act have led to dozens of class actions filed against a range of companies; Cheung said a continuing wave of such class actions is expected, particularly given the extension of the CCPA under the recently-passed California Privacy Rights and Enforcement Act.

“I am leading defense teams as cases have arisen, and our team is closely monitoring related privacy matters, given the significant focus on enforcement arising under the law,” she said.

For Warner Music, Cheung is lead counsel in ten data breach class actions filed in California and New York in which plaintiffs allege statutory, contract and common law claims stemming from a security incident allegedly involving the unauthorized disclosure of information related to consumers. In re Warner Music Group Data Breach, 1:20-cv-07473 (S.D. N.Y., filed Sept. 11, 2020).

“All ten have been consolidated in New York, and the consolidated complaint alleges violations under the CCPA,” she said.

Cheung also represents clients sued under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991, a statute that got a significant narrowing of its auto-dialer ban in April when the U.S Supreme Court decided 9-0 that Facebook did not violate anti-spam laws when it sent certain text messages. Facebook Inc. v. Duguid, 19-511 (S.Ct., op. filed April 1, 2021).

“The TCPA has been a source of active litigation,” Cheung said, referring to clients who have been sued for placing unsolicited marketing calls. “This decision should stem the tide.”

Cheung also represents numerous pro bono clients in matters involving guardianship petitions, petitions under the Violence Against Women Act and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals applications.

“Pro bono is an important part of what my firm does,” she said.

— John Roemer