Robins Kaplan LLP Partner Stacey Slaughter Appointed to Financial Institution Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee in Equifax Multidistrict Litigation

MINNEAPOLIS, MN—February 15, 2018—Chief Judge Thomas Thrash of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia has appointed Robins Kaplan LLP® partner Stacey Slaughter to the eight-member Financial Institution Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee in multidistrict litigation against Equifax over its unprecedented data security breach.

The massive litigation alleges multiple acts of negligence on Equifax’s part, including a failure to adequately alert the more than 143 million customers impacted by the breach and the allowance of top Equifax executives to sell nearly $2 million in stock following disclosure of the breach. 

As a member of the committee, Slaughter will collaborate with lead counsel and other committee members to help ensure that the litigation is conducted effectively and efficiently. She will meet and confer as needed regarding the completion of the plaintiffs’ pretrial and trial activities, and will participate in the determination of any significant matters that arise in the litigation.

Recently named one of Law360’s 25 Most Influential Women in Securities Law, Slaughter has represented clients facing significant commercial disputes, complex business problems, and novel legal issues, and has litigated several high-profile cases affecting the financial markets and consumers in recent years. One of the most consequential cases is Dahl et al. v. Bain Capital Partners et. al,which alleged a multi-year conspiracy among the country’s largest private equity funds to drive down the prices for leveraged buyouts of publicly traded companies. Defendants in the case—which included many of the largest and most recognized private equity firms, including The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., Bain Capital Partners, and The Blackstone Group L.P.—agreed to settlement payments totaling nearly $600 million. She was also part of a team that resolved RMBS claims for plaintiff Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh, who incurred significant losses after the 2008 financial collapse.

Most recently, Slaughter was appointed to the nine-member Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee in multidistrict litigation against Fiat Chrysler over “defeat devices” that masked vehicles’ true emissions levels. Slaughter also currently serves as counsel to Summit Credit Union in its class action lawsuit against Equifax over its security failure. Filed this past September, Summit Credit Union was the first U.S. financial institution to sue over the Equifax breach.

Slaughter currently serves as the executive director of the International Financial Litigation Network, a leading global litigation network of more than 40 law firms in 20 countries.

The case is In re Equifax, Inc., Customer Data Security Breach Litigation, case number 1:17-md-2800.