Daniel Girard has been appointed by a Washington D.C. federal court judge to serve as lead counsel in consolidated national litigation against the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (“OPM”), OPM’s Director, OPM’s Chief Information Officer, and KeyPoint Government Solutions, in a case concerning a data breach announced in June 2015. As lead counsel, Mr. Girard will be supported by liaison counsel Gary E. Mason of Whitfield Bryson & Mason and a plaintiffs’ steering committee consisting of John Yanchunis of Morgan & Morgan Complex Litigation Group, Tina Wolfson of Ahdoot & Wolfson, and David H. Thompson of Cooper & Kirk. This group of attorneys will represent the interests of up to 18 million federal employees and federal applicants whose personal information was exposed in the data breach. Mr. Girard’s leadership in the investigation and filing of the claims in this case, experience with similar class action cases, and reputation for creative solutions to complex cases contributed to his Lead Counsel appointment. OPM Data Breach Resulted in Theft of Highly Sensitive Information On June 4, 2015, OPM announced that it had been the subject of a massive cyber attack that compromised millions of federal applicants’ personal identifiable information, records, and other sensitive information. According to Defendants OPM and KeyPoint, the June 2015 data breach resulted in the theft of millions of SF-86 applications, which are detailed 127-page forms that include data regarding applicants’ social security numbers, financial histories and investment records, children’s and relatives’ names, foreign trips taken and contacts with foreign nationals, past residences, and names of neighbors and close friends such as college roommates and coworkers. Eighteen proposed class action lawsuits filed against OPM, its officers and director, and KeyPoint allege that the defendants in the consolidated litigation had for years been aware of significant cyber security vulnerabilities yet failed to take adequate measures to prevent the breach. About Daniel Girard Daniel C. Girard is the founder and managing partner of Girard Gibbs LLP. He has over 25 years of experience in class action litigation and is recognized by his peers and the federal judiciary as an expert in complex litigation. Over the past few years, Mr. Girard’s firm has served as lead counsel or as a member of the leadership team in a number of important privacy cases, including several of the most prominent data breach actions, including In re Anthem, Inc. Data Breach Litig., In re:Adobe Systems, Inc. Privacy Litigation, and data breach cases against Home Depot, Experian, and Premera Blue Cross. Mr. Girard has been recognized as a Northern California Super Lawyer (Top 100) and 2013 “Lawyer of the Year” in San Francisco for Mass Tort Litigation and Class Actions. He has been named among San Francisco’s Top AV-Preeminent Lawyers and The Best Lawyers in America (2012-2016).
