Laurie J. Edelstein

San Francisco

Litigation

Laurie J. Edelstein represents energy and technology companies as a partner at Jenner & Block LLP. She also maintains a high-impact pro bono practice.

A former house counsel for Pacific Gas and Electric Co., she knows the power industry well -- and she has the footwear to prove it. "I own a pair of steel-toed boots for climbing down manholes, examining utility tunnels and touring substations -- whatever it takes to represent my client effectively," her Jenner & Block bio states.

Edelstein represents her former employer, PG&E, as she leads Jenner & Block's team in civil litigation arising from California's largest wildfire last year, the Mosquito Fire in the Tahoe and Eldorado national forests.

The resulting lawsuits include individual claims for property loss and other damages, public entity claims for lost revenue and profits and damaged infrastructure and claims from insurance companies. A government website says the cause remains under investigation. The litigation was coordinated in San Mosquito Fire Cases, JCCP 5272 (CJC-23-005272) (S.F. Super. Ct., coord. March 3, 2023).

"These cases are just getting underway," Edelstein said. She added that she's worked on other fire cases and that she and her firm are monitoring the Maui fire situation and looking closely at others across the U.S.

"We think wildfires and other climate change events will increase," she said, "especially in Hawaii and other places where there's a complicated interplay between rainfall, vegetation growth, drought and winds."

In other litigation, Edelstein led a Jenner & Block team that successfully turned away a potential class action alleging that Meta Platforms Inc. violated the Video Privacy Protection Act of 1988 by disclosing users' video-watching habits through its Facebook Live product. Walker v. Meta Platforms, Inc., 4:22-cv-02442 (N.D. Cal., filed March 17, 2022).

"The law's been around awhile, but there are efforts to use it in different ways," Edelstein said. U.S. District Judge Jon S. Tigar of Oakland held in March 2023 that the video privacy law applies only to prerecorded broadcasts, not to livestreams; the plaintiff then dismissed the complaint.

Currently, Edelstein is partnering with the ACLU and Lambda Legal Defense Fund to challenge Oklahoma's newly-enacted ban on gender-affirming medical care for transgender adolescents. The effort has so far secured an agreement with the state's attorney general to not enforce the ban while a preliminary injunction motion is in progress. Poe v. Drummond, 4:23-cv-00177 (D. Okla., filed May 2, 2023).

"This is a career I very much enjoy," Edelstein said.

--John Roemer