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Am Law 100 firm with practices in Business, Digital Assets and Data Management, Intellectual Property, Labor & Employment, Litigation and Tax.

Home | BakerHostetler

Analysis of Texas House Bill 21 – Property Tax Exemptions for Housing Finance Corporations Owning Affordable Housing

BakerHostetler Assists Hornblower Group with Travel + Leisure Partnership

BakerHostetler Team Advises Altaline Capital Management, LLC in Investment in Brazos Safety Systems, LLC

BakerHostetler Team Earns Litigator of the Week Runner-Up Honors for Gaining New Trial for Death Row Inmate

Sarah has recently defended major health care providers, insurance agencies and private universities, among others, in large scale data breach class actions alleging violations of California’s Confidentiality of Medical Information Act, Consumers Legal Remedies Act, California Consumer Privacy Act, the Unfair Competition Law, New York General Business Law sections 349 and 350 and other statutes. Sarah is also part of a team responsible for defending a major international hotel chain in complex, multidistrict litigation following a data security incident that impacted over 500 million guest records nationwide.

Prior to joining BakerHostetler, Sarah worked at the Pittsburgh office of an international law firm in the business and tort litigation group. Sarah’s previous clients have ranged from distributors and pharmacies in opioid litigation to a technology company in a threatened SEC investigation. Sarah has also represented multiple Native American clients and their economic enterprises following data incidents, including in affirmative actions against breached vendors and defensively in data breach class action litigation.

core/freeform

J.D., Syracuse University College of Law, 2017, 

M.A., International Relations, Syracuse University, 2017

B.A., International Political Economy and Spanish Language and Literature, Fordham University, 2010, 

Denver

Commercial Litigation

Class Action Defense

Digital Assets and Data Management

Privacy and Digital Risk Class Action and Litigation

Multidistrict Litigation

<ul>
<li>Successfully moved to dismiss nationwide class action brought against national healthcare provider alleging violation of the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). Relying on the party exception, Sarah was able to convince the Court to dismiss the entire class action, finding that “as the party that installed [the] tracking technologies on its Web Properties, [Defendant] necessarily consented to the use of those pixels and the ‘interception’ of the communications between [plaintiff] and [defendant].” The case was dismissed before the client had to engage in any discovery.</li>
<li>Won a motion for summary judgment for the second time in a case by a plaintiff who alleged that a mail order business and its software platform violated the Pennsylvania Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Control Act of 1978 (WESCA) by unlawfully intercepting her data while she shopped online. The U.S. District Court of Western Pennsylvania ruled that Plaintiff had constructive notice of, and impliedly consented to, Harriet Carter’s privacy policy, and therefore consented to the alleged collection and “interception” of her data. </li>
<li>Successfully achieved full dismissal, with prejudice, of plaintiff’s “Yelp Law” claim pursuant to California Civil Code § 1670.8(a) based on allegations that defendant airline’s “Terms of Use” for purchase of in-flight WiFi contained an unlawful anti-disparagement provision. The court sustained the airline’s and the airline’s modem provider’s demurrer with prejudice, finding that plaintiff’s claim was preempted under the Airline Deregulation Act (“ADA”), 49 U.S.C. § 40101 et seq. because his claim “related to” airline “services” under the ADA. Qian v. Southwest Airlines Co. &amp; Hughes Network Systems, LLC, Case No. 24CV432706 (Cal. Sup. Ct., Santa Clara Cty.)</li>
<li>Part of nationwide team representing healthcare and other clients throughout the U.S. in defending against privacy class actions arising out of the alleged use of web tracking technologies.</li>
<li>Represents a national student loan service provider in a now-consolidated case involving 23 data breach class action lawsuits against client’s co-defendant and vendor. Sarah successfully defeated transfer to the JPML following a hearing on same.  Sarah also achieved a grant of an opposed stay of all claims against client pending resolution of co-defendant’s motion to dismiss, saving significant client time and resources while narrowing the issues if the case is not ultimately dismissed.</li>
<li>Represents an Arizona hospital that successfully defeated remand based on the “Mandatory Home State Exception” to CAFA jurisdiction following briefing and a hearing on same. Sarah and her team successfully briefed and argued that the mailing addresses of the putative class, which was comprised of hospital patients in a major military and “snowbird” city, could not be used as a proxy for Arizona state citizenship.</li>
<li>On team that successfully dismissed Scripps Health from all federal court cases following a ransomware attack based on lack of CAFA jurisdiction where there were approximately 96% mailing addresses in California. See In re: Scripps Health Data Sec. Breach Litig., Case No.: 21cv1135-GPC(MSB), 2022 WL 228797, at *1 (S.D. Cal. Jan. 26, 2022). Currently on the team that represents Scripps Health against claims ranging from a violation of the CMIA and the CRA to negligence in the remaining six state court cases in San Diego County Superior Court.</li>
<li>Represented distributors and pharmacies in opioid litigation civil defense in state and federal courts across the U.S. by preparing witnesses, attending and participating in joint defense task force calls, conducting research and drafting motions to compel and oppositions to same, among other motions, drafting written discovery requests and responses, and being responsible for all defensive discovery production and responses in Pennsylvania.</li>
<li>Represented a religious organization in drafting an amicus brief in support of a significant civil matter to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which the Court agreed to hear and was argued in October 2020. The Court ultimately sided with the party for whom the amicus brief was written to support and cited work from the brief in its decision.</li>
<li>Represented a products manufacturer in toxic torts involving lead paint in state courts across the country by engaging in document review and expert witness research and preparation.</li>
<li>Advised a global systemically important bank in conducting risk assessment to determine the impact of LIBOR transition on enterprise-wide portfolios.</li>
<li>Advised a technology company in a threatened SEC investigation following a hacking attack on the company.</li>
<li>Represented a petroleum and natural gas production company in a “fracking” lawsuit.</li>
<li>Successfully achieved favorable early settlement for developer and publisher of large-scale gaming applications following suit commenced in Arkansas state court stating claim for intrusion upon seclusion based on allegation that the developer had embedded software development kits (SDKs) into its applications to collect and monitor child user&#8217;s information for use in targeted advertising and for profit. Following removal to the Western District of Arkansas and arguments that Plaintiff’s complaint should be dismissed for, among other reasons, lack of personal jurisdiction, failure to state a claim and preemption under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the parties reached a favorable individual settlement.</li>
</ul>

Sarah A. Ballard

Sarah A. Ballard

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