Legal Updates

After passing with relative ease through Virginia’s House of Delegates and Senate, Governor Ralph Northam signed the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (CDPA) into law on March 2, 2021. Virginia joins California as the only states in the nation to have passed comprehensive privacy legislation. Companies that are subject to the new law will have to comply beginning January 1, 2023, the date when the law goes into effect. Companies should note that this date coincides with the effective date of the new substantive obligations set forth in the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), the recently passed ballot initiative amending the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), as discussed in our previous alert.

While the new Virginia law creates a hybrid model that borrows liberally from the CCPA and CPRA, as well as the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), it also contains many unique elements that diverge from these counterparts. Read more…

In recent years, Illinois’ costly and strict Biometric Information Privacy Act (“BIPA”), 740 ILCS § 14/1 et seq., has been used by the plaintiffs’ class action bar in Illinois and around the country to extract significant monetary settlements from unwary companies, causing substantial disruption to their businesses. Maryland legislators recently introduced a biometric information privacy law that echoes BIPA. The proposed law, titled “Commercial Law – Consumer Protection – Biometric Identifiers and Biometric Information Privacy,” would become only the second in the country to provide a private right of action to plaintiffs and allow successful litigants to recover attorneys’ fees and litigation costs. Read more…

If you’re an employment lawyer, you see employment related issues – almost – everywhere …current events, sports, and pop culture. And, it’s just that perspective that brings us to the curious case of Lady Gaga’s dog walker’s employment status.

As has been widely reported, Lady Gaga’s dog walker was ambushed while walking two of her French bulldogs in Hollywood, California. The dog walker, who was shot, is recovering and after several days the dogs have been returned. Read more…