The new BIPA? Genetic Information Privacy Act lawsuits flood Illinois courts
Partner Martin Roth was quoted in this article for Global Data Review that discusses Genetic Information Privacy Act (GIPA) litigation claims and Kirkland's GIPA class action win for Ancestry.com.
"Plaintiff attorneys are filing a tidal wave of untested Genetic Information Privacy Act litigation claims in hopes of duplicating the Biometric Information Privacy Act’s (BIPA) success.
... "Unlike BIPA there have been few written decisions on GIPA even though the statutes are about the same age,” said Kirkland & Ellis partner Martin Roth. “There is less authority companies can reference."
However, Roth did lead one of the few GIPA class actions when he and his team secured a win for Ancestry.com. Ancestry this year fought off a 2021 class action claiming the genetics and genealogy company did not provide an option to prevent Blackstone from receiving plaintiffs' data after the private investor bought the company. In May 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed a district court ruling that could not find that Blackstone had compelled the disclosure of protected genetic information through its acquisition of Ancestry."
