Mullen Coughlin, Cybersecurity & Data Privacy

Mullen Coughlin attorneys James F. Monagle and Nicholas J. Pontzer recently obtained a first-of-its-kind summary judgment victory in Doe v. Eating Recovery Center LLC – a lawsuit involving alleged violations of the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) and California’s Confidentiality of Medical Information Act (CMIA) by a healthcare entity who utilized the Meta Pixel on its website. 

On October 17, 2025, Judge Vince Chhabria of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California granted summary judgment to Eating Recovery Center (ERC), finding ERC did not violate CIPA or CMIA by using the Meta Pixel on its website. Judge Chhabria opined that “courts should not contort themselves to fit the type of conduct alleged in this case into the language of a 1967 criminal statute about wiretapping.”

In recent years, Plaintiffs’ counsel have brought hundreds of similar claims against website operators who use third party website technologies for data analytics and targeted advertising purposes. Generally, these claims attempt to shoehorn ancient wiretapping statutes in pursuit of class-wide statutory damages. This decision is a welcome step in rejecting those claims.

Mullen Coughlin’s nationwide litigation team possess deep subject-matter knowledge, industry experience and insight in data privacy and security single-plaintiff, class action and B2B litigation. We have successfully managed thousands of litigation and regulatory investigation matters on behalf of organizations of all sizes and across all industry sectors in the United States.

Read more on Law360.

Mullen Coughlin is proud to sponsor and participate in the 2025 PLUS Conference in Orlando, FL from November 10-12. This year’s Conference is themed around emerging risks and the critical issues that keep insurance, professional liability and other risk management professionals up at night.

On November 11, Managing Member Jennifer Coughlin, joined by Travelers’ Christine Mapes and CRA’s Bill Hardin, present during the session “Between a Rock and a Hard Drive: Navigating Cyber Extortion.” During this live, interactive demonstration, Jenn and the panel reveal how ransom negotiations unfold in real-time between legal counsel, forensics, negotiation firms, cyber insurance claims professionals and the cyber extortion threat actor. Attendees gain practical insights into negotiation tactics, effective communication strategies, legal and regulatory payment considerations and critical decision-making processes that help manage and mitigate cyber extortion incidents.

With the Firm’s sponsorship and continued support, the 2025 PLUS Conference is one of the premier educational and business development events of the year. In addition to Jenn, Mullen Coughlin CEO John Mullen will be in attendance.

Learn more here.

In September, Mullen Coughlin welcomed three (3) new Associates to the Firm: Celia Uwaekwe to the Incident Response practice and Jacob Schultz and Travis Randle to the Litigation practice.

Celia, based in Texas, is a former Law Clerk with the Firm and re-joins the Firm now licensed to practice in Texas. She will continue to build on her Law Clerk experience, assisting organizations respond to and investigate data privacy and security incidents. With particular experience counseling organizations in the financial services industry, as well as those regulated by the SEC, Celia is well-versed in the relevant laws and regulations that pertain to them in the context of data protection, privacy and information security. In addition to her J.D. from Texas Southern University Thurgood Marshall School of Law, she also holds a Master of Laws in Cyber Law and Data Privacy from Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law and a BBA cum laude in Economics from Kennesaw State University.

Jacob joins the Litigation practice and is based in Devon. A former litigator at an AmLaw200 law firm, he has over five (5) years of experiencing defending organizations in security and privacy litigation, including single-plaintiff, class action and B2B. In addition to being well-versed in common defenses, he has vast experience in successfully identifying and arguing novel legal theories related to data privacy and security incidents and related litigation. Jacob received his J.D. from Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law and a B.A. in East Asian Languages and Civilization from the University of Chicago. Jacob is licensed to practice in Pennsylvania and before the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. He is business-level fluent in Mandarin Chinese, Japanese and French, and conversational in German and Italian.

Travis also joins the Litigation practice and is based in Maryland. With over five (5) years of litigation experience, a majority with AmLaw100 firms, Travis is well-versed in defending organizations from numerous highly-regulated and complex industry sectors such as healthcare and life sciences, financial services, education, and government. At Mullen Coughlin, he will build upon his previous regulatory and compliance experience by defending organizations in single-plaintiff, class action and B2B privacy and security disputes in U.S. state and federal courts nationwide. Travis is licensed to practice in Washington, DC and Virginia. He holds a J.D. from Howard University School of Law, a Master of Public Policy from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and a B.A. cum laude from Morehouse College.