Top Cyber Lawyers 2020

Supplement to the Los Angeles and San Francisco

NOVEMBER 11, 2020

TOP CYBER LAWYERS 2020

Kristin A. Linsley

insley has extensive experience the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, but defending clients against claims Shulman held that it does not apply to state involving data privacy, cybersecu- law claims, Linsley said. rity and technology. Recent cases “Bottom line: you can’t sue the messen- Lfor clients Salesforce.com Inc., Facebook ger,” she added. Inc. and Amazon.com concerned allega- Linsley leads a Gibson Dunn team repre- tions over human trafficking, terrorism and senting Amazon in cases arising from alle- Covid-19. gations that sellers have engaged in price- “It’s been an interesting set of cases with gouging for consumer products during the a lot of buzz around them,” Linsley said. Covid-19 pandemic. In one case involv- She leads the Gibson Dunn team repre- ing egg prices, the plaintiffs have dropped senting Salesforce in claims brought by al- Amazon from the list of defendants. In an- leged human trafficking victims seeking to other, she is pursuing motions to compel impose liability on the software company individual arbitrations. over its customer relationship manage- She represents Facebook in nearly a doz- ment software as used by an affiliate of the en federal cases arising from the 2016 Paris classified advertising website Backpage. ISIS attack, the 2016 Orlando, Fla., Pulse com. The theory was that Backpage used nightclub shooting, the 2016 shooting of the software tools to expand its customer Dallas, Tex., police officers and other ter- base and market to new customers, with rorist attacks worldwide. The complaints the result that Backpage increased its traf- alleged that Facebook and other social GIBSON, DUNN & ficking business. Does #1 through #90 Sex media sites failed to monitor their content CRUTCHER LLP Trafficking Survivors v. Salesforce.com or institute controls to prevent postings by Inc., CGC-19-574770 (S.F. Super. Ct., terrorist groups or sympathizers and that SAN FRANCISCO filed March 25, 2019). the groups were strengthened by their ac- Practice: Litigation Specialties: In October 2019, San Francisco County cess to global media platforms. The suits Cybersecurity; privacy, appellate Superior Court Judge Ethan P. Schulman also name Twitter Inc. and Google LLC. law, transnational litigation dismissed all the claims in the 90-plaintiff To date, courts have dismissed the case with prejudice, agreeing with Linsley complaints. Her successful defense argu- that the claims were barred by section 230 ment has been that offering a neutral plat- Palmucci v. Twitter Inc., Google LLC and of the Communications Decency Act be- form to connect people and allow them Facebook Inc., 4:18-cv-03947 (N.D. Cal., cause the plaintiffs were seeking to hold to share information does not constitute filed Feb. 14, 2018). Salesforce liable for third-party content “material support” for terrorists and that, “All the defendants have policies against posted by others. again, section 230 of the Communications such posts,” Linsley said. “The chain of The plaintiffs sought to apply a 2018 Decency Act shields her client from liabil- causation is very attenuated.” exception to the CDA known as FOSTA, ity. One suit that ended with dismissal was — John Roemer