Spokeo was less than four years old when it faced a class action with the potential to destroy the budding person-search company. The suit, filed in 2010, alleged that Spokeo Inc. violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act by providing incorrect information about certain individuals. The company turned to Mayer Brown.

From the start, the defense team saw the potential for broad-reaching precedent. “What really stuck in the Spokeo C-suite’s mind when we made this decision was the nature of this case where the plaintiff had no injuries,” says general counsel Jason Matthes, who joined the company when the litigation had reached the appellate stage.