Paulyne Gardner is a Partner in Mullen Coughlin’s Litigation practice, handling all aspects of third-party claims, including single-plaintiff and class action, related to data privacy and information security. She also responds to regulatory inquiries on behalf of organizations who have been the victim of a data privacy and security incident. Should an organization find themselves named as a defendant or a third-party for violations of consumer protection statutes, fraud, negligence or breach of contract related to data privacy, Paulyne works directly with the organization in managing the full lifecycle of the organization’s defense and response to the matter. She advises all types of organizations and has significant experience in defending organizations from the healthcare and life sciences and financial services industry groups.
Having spent her entire legal career focused on the management of complex litigation matters, Paulyne has extensive experience in the oversight and coordination of multi-state litigation and mass torts in both state and federal courts nationwide, as well as working with expert witnesses, handling investigation and discovery and preparing for and engaging in contested motion practice, oral argument, mediation, arbitration and trial. She has liaised with virtually all federal regulatory and law enforcement agencies that have jurisdiction over consumer data privacy and information security, including, among others, the:
- Federal Trade Commission (FTC);
- Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC);
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (HHS-OCR);
- U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ);
- U.S. Secret Service (USSS);
- Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI);
- Federal Communications Commission (FCC); and
- U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).
She is adept at understanding and defending organizations against claims of violations of state, federal, international and industry tort and privacy laws and regulations, such as the:
- Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA);
- Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA);
- Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA);
- Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA);
- Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) (the “Wiretap Act”);
- European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR);
- Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA); and
- California Consumer Protection Act (CCPA) and its amendment, the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA).
She also has experience in defending organizations against claims related to website tracking technologies, such as Meta Pixel.
Prior to joining Mullen Coughlin, Paulyne represented a variety of healthcare organizations in litigation and served as national coordinating counsel for several insurers in a collection of cases involving complex medical, scientific and legal issues.