MDL Panel Sets May 25 Oral Argument in T-Mobile Data Breach Cases

The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation set May 25 in-person oral argument in Philadelphia on the petition to transfer and consolidate under a single district judge the multiple class actions arising from T-Mobile’s most recent data breach (see 2303270010), said a hearing notice Friday (MDL No. 3073). Counsel presenting oral argument must appear at 8 a.m. to enable the panel to allocate the amount of time for oral argument, said the notice. Oral argument itself will begin at 9:30 a.m, it said. May 1 is the deadline for submitting notices of presentation or waiver of oral argument, said the notice. James Cecchi of Carella Byrne became the first counsel to file notice of presentation of oral argument in favor of consolidating the cases and transferring them to the Western District of Missouri in Kansas City. Cecchi represents plaintiff Frankie Gonzalez in the action filed Jan. 23 in U.S. District Court for New Jersey in Newark (docket 2:23-cv-367), one of the first-filed cases to follow T-Mobile’s Jan. 19 disclosure of its latest data breach (see 2301240031). Cecchi, founder and director of Carella Byrne's class-action practice in Roseland, New Jersey, was recently picked as the plaintiffs’ interim lead counsel in the data breach cases against Samsung that were transferred to and consolidated under U.S. District Judge Christine O’Hearn for New Jersey in Camden (see 2302280010).