BakerHostetler’s strength as national class action defense counsel across practice areas was recently recognized in both The Lex Machina 2026 Class Action Litigation Report and a Law360 article on the report’s insights. Published April 15, 2026, the article highlighted a 2025 spike in federal class action filings driven by consumer protection lawsuits tied to data breaches, digital commerce and online accessibility claims, areas in which the firm’s multidisciplinary teams regularly defend clients. Over the past three years, BakerHostetler represented defendants in nearly 1,000 new federal class actions across 75 federal district courts – the most of any law firm.
Partner Casie Collignon, co-leader of the Privacy and Digital Risk Class Action and Litigation team, was highlighted as one of the most active attorneys representing defendants from 2023 through 2025.
As noted in the article, the report shows that plaintiffs filed more than 12,000 putative class actions in federal district courts in 2025, the highest annual total since at least 2016 and about a 25 percent increase from 2024. Consumer protection cases drove that growth, pushing the category to its highest level in a decade, with more than 7,650 consumer protection class actions filed last year, a more than 40 percent year-over-year increase. The lawsuits accounted for nearly half of all federal class actions over the past decade, more than double the volume of the next-largest category, civil rights cases.
Lex Machina attributed the recent escalation largely to claims stemming from electronic data breaches and alleged violations of online consumer and accessibility statutes, reflecting the expanding footprint of digital commerce and heightened regulatory scrutiny of data privacy practices.
BakerHostetler’s Digital Assets and Data Management Practice Group is a leader in data breach and data privacy litigation, delivering coordinated class action defense strategy, efficient discovery and data management, and practical risk guidance for clients navigating fast-evolving privacy laws and emerging technologies.
In addition to BakerHostetler’s Privacy and Digital Risk Class Action and Litigation team, the Class Action Defense team defends a wide range of consumer protection class actions across multiple industries, as well as other types of class actions, also reflected in Lex Machina’s case count.
For more insights from the report, read the article here.
