Photo of Laura Foggan

Laura Foggan is a partner in Crowell & Moring's Washington, D.C. office, and chair of the firm's Insurance/Reinsurance Group. She has been described by LawDragon 500 Magazine as "one of the most successful advocates for the insurance industry to ever practice." Laura was recently recognized as a Global Elite Thought Leader for Insurance & Reinsurance by Who's Who Legal (2019), who praised her as a "dynamic and creative thinker" who has "very high standards and delivers superior work." She is a Chambers-ranked Band 1 practitioner and included in the Best Lawyers in America directory, and consistently named one of Washington D.C.'s "Top 100 Lawyers" and "Top 50 Women Lawyers" and a "Super Lawyer" for Insurance Coverage by Super Lawyers Magazine. Laura represents clients in a variety of litigation and counseling matters.

On February 17, 2023, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that violations of the Biometric Information Privacy Act (“BIPA”) (the country’s first biometric privacy legislation) accrue for each incident of capture or dissemination of biometric information, and not only once for each data subject. Cothron v. White Castle Systems found based on the plain language

Key Takeaways

  1. A Potential Increase in Claims, Costs, and Damages
  2. Reduce Liability Through Transparency

On February 2, 2023, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that all Biometric Information Privacy Act (“BIPA”) claims are uniformly subject to a five-year statute of limitations, expanding liability for businesses collecting biometric information.[1] In Tims v. Black Horse Carriers, Inc.

On August 8, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued yet another decision adopting relaxed standing requirements in privacy litigation, this time in a decision permitting a plaintiff to pursue claims under Illinois’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). In Patel v. Facebook, the Ninth Circuit rejected arguments from Facebook Inc. (Facebook) that claims under the BIPA require assertions of real-world harm, and that BIPA claims only apply to conduct within Illinois. The ruling creates a circuit split on the standard for establishing Article III standing in BIPA litigation, which could prompt the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the issue.

Background

Continue Reading Ninth Circuit Rejects Facebook’s Article III Argument; Biometric Lawsuit Will Proceed