Andre Mura

Mura joined Gibbs Law Group in 2015 after working in Washington, D.C., as a senior litigation counsel at the Center for Constitutional Litigation PC. He focuses on consumer class actions and privacy law, with specialties in the areas of preemption, qualified immunity and federal jurisdiction.

He’s the son of parents who emigrated from Argentina and Italy and met in Queens, New York. Mura said he takes seriously his responsibility as a younger gay man who is a first generation American to be visible and work hard to overcome stereotypes.

“LGBTQ attorneys of an earlier generation paved the way for younger attorneys like me in so many ways, but there is still much work to be done,” he said. “In my field, complex litigation, LGBTQ attorneys are underrepresented in leadership positions. As an LGBTQ attorney who believes that having lawyers who reflect the diversity of affected communities enhances the administration of justice, I feel that I have a special responsibility to be visible and to work hard.”

Mura leads the Gibbs Law team that joined with a coalition of privacy attorneys to file in federal court in February a potential class action on behalf of California civil rights activists who accuse a media organization of illegally selling data without consent. The complaint alleges that Thomson Reuters Corp.’s CLEAR database collects the utility records, criminal histories, credit reports, photographs and other records of millions of Californians and sells it to private companies, police and immigration authorities. Brooks v. Thomson Reuters Corp., 3:21-cv-01418 (N.D. Cal., filed Feb. 26, 2021).

“The case fits nicely with my consumer privacy interests,” Mura said. “Privacy lawyers from several nonprofits reached out to me due to my work on the Vizio case.”

That would be Mura’s success as co-lead counsel for the settlement class in a multi-district suit over data privacy, in which Mura negotiated a deal that included injunctive relief and a $17 million fund for consumers whose television viewing habits and digital identities were sold to advertisers by a television set maker. In re Vizio Inc. Consumer Privacy Litigation, 8:16-md-02693 (C.D. Cal., filed April 11, 2016).

A federal judge OK’d the settlement in 2019, saying, “I’m glad I appointed all of you as lead counsel because—it probably is the best set of papers I’ve had on preliminary approval.”

Mura is preparing to argue for the plaintiff in July before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that a federal judge in New Orleans wrongly admitted expert testimony that led a jury to find not liable a breast cancer chemotherapy drug maker accused of failing to warn that its product causes permanent hair loss. In re Taxotere (Docetaxel) Products Liability Litigation, 20-30184 (5th Cir., filed July 16, 2020).

“We have a very strong appeal,” he said. “I love the breadth of the cases I get to work on.”

— John Roemer