Our first runner-up is a team at Cooley led by Travis LeBlanc and Dee Bansal that on Nov. 9 secured a consent order with the Federal Trade Commission on behalf of client Zoom Communications Inc. The deal settles FTC claims that Zoom misrepresented its security features, including claims that its videoconferencing platform implemented end-to-end encryption when it hadn’t, and requires the company to create an annual report of its internal and external security risks. As part of the deal, Zoom paid no monetary fine or penalty. The Cooley team also included David Mills, Scott Dailard, David Navetta, Nick Flath, Chip Harrison, David Houska, Jina John, Matt Johnson, Kaitland Kennelly, Joseph Mornin, Natalie Pike, and Tania Soris.
In a victory made extra sweet given that it landed just before Veterans Day, a Paul Hastings team led by Stephen Kinnaird working pro bono alongside the National Veterans Legal Services Program secured retroactive disability and death benefits for a class of so-called “Blue Water” Navy veterans of the Vietnam War and their survivors. Blue Water veterans who served on ships in the territorial seas of Vietnam rather than inland waterways had previously been excluded from a deal struck to compensate those exposed to Agent Orange during the war. On Nov. 5, U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco found that Blue Water veterans are members of the previously certified class and that the VA had been improperly denying them benefits. The firm estimates the ruling could affect between 2,000 and 15,000 veterans and their survivors, and could result in an average of $28,000 in benefits for each. The Paul Hastings team also included partner Sean Unger, senior associate Sarah Besnoff, and associate Alex Schulman.
