Parties Disagree Over Lead Counsel in Consolidated LastPass Actions

All parties agree it’s appropriate to consolidate the nine class actions pending before the court on second-half 2022 data breaches at LastPass, but disagree about how the cases should be organized, said a memorandum of law Monday (docket 1:22-cv-12047) in U.S. District Court for Massachusetts in Boston. The discord persists despite "extensive outreach” from members of Berman Tabacco, Migliaccio & Rathod, and Zimmerman Law Offices (the BT Group), it said. The memorandum opposed the appointment of the Haber Group as interim co-lead counsel and the application of Michael Reese for appointment as interim co-lead class counsel. The dispute results from decisions by the Haber and Reese groups to “reject the inclusive structure advocated by counsel representing the plaintiffs in the five actions already pending” in the court when the Haber and Reese groups filed there. The “inclusive structure,” endorsed by proposed interim class counsel BT Group “sought to heed the Court’s admonition” in another recent data breach case, Shields Health Care Group Inc. Data Breach Litigation (docket 1:22-cv-10901), for counsel to privately resolve leadership disputes, it said. The BT Group proposed that members of the Haber Group join as co-lead counsel and as members of the executive committee and for Reese to be on the committee, but members of the Haber and Reese groups declined the offer, it said. The BT Group “remains ready and willing” to include members of both groups on the executive committee if it's appointed interim co-lead counsel, it said. Including all counsel who wish to join in the litigation of the related actions “is in the best interests of the putative class, ensuring that the largest pool of potential plaintiffs is vetted for inclusion in the Consolidated Complaint and as class representatives, as well as taking the broadest and most diverse range of attorney perspectives into consideration,” it said. Last month, LastPass sought a stay of all deadlines in its proceedings until U.S. Judge Patti Saris decides whether to consolidate what was then seven substantially similar class actions and appoint interim class counsel in the first-filed case (see 2302280001) on an August data breach.