Daniel S. Robinson

NEWPORT BEACH - Daniel S. Robinson has represented plaintiffs in multidistrict drug and medical device litigation. He's represented various public entities in lawsuits seeking to recover for environmental harms caused by manufacturers' release of PFAS chemicals into California water supplies, including the Orange County Water District, the East Orange County Water District, Irvine Ranch Water District, the Serrano Water District, the Yorba Linda Water District, and the cities of Anaheim, Corona, Fullerton, Garden Grove, Orange, Santa Ana and Tustin.

He's also represented data breach victims, such as plaintiffs who were suing Ambry Genetics in at least four putative consumer class action cases following an alleged data breach in January 2020. The breach allegedly resulted in unauthorized access to customers' protected health information. Cercas v. Ambry Genetics Corp., 8:20-cv-00791 (C.D. Cal., filed Apr. 23, 2020).

"I've been fortunate to work on several data breach cases that have been resolved recently. One example is a data breach class where unauthorized parties allegedly obtained health information for approximately 225,000 individuals who'd undergone genetic testing through Ambry," Robinson said. "The parties litigated vigorously for a couple years and then, through mediation, came to an agreement that affords meaningful benefits to class members, such as cash payments, coverage of fraud and out-of-pocket losses, years of credit monitoring and identity theft insurance, and other benefits. I'm one of three lead counsel appointed in the case who've worked together as a team to push discovery and obtain key information that was critical to resolution."

"Having good teamwork is essential," he continued "I've been blessed to work with so many great lawyers over the years, both within my firm and co-counsel. And that includes defense counsel as well -- once you settle a case, you've got to roll up your sleeves and iron out complex terms for class action or mass tort cases with the other side. I've found that some of the best relationships I've formed over the years are with opposing counsel after we've finished a hard-fought litigation."

A company doing the right thing could lead to fewer data breaches, according to Robinson.

"There's a lot of industry-standard steps that companies can take, such as quickly applying patches and updates to software and network vulnerabilities, devoting resources to security measures like penetration testing, audits and other tests of your network by outside vendors, and updating corporate policies and infrastructure so that your company isn't falling behind the times," he said. "But I think the simplest answer is for companies to take their IT security departments seriously, listen to them when they say there's an issue and work quickly to address security incidents and vulnerabilities with meaningful resources when they arise."