Viola Trebicka is a partner in the firm’s Los Angeles and New York offices. She is the go-to litigator for companies’ data disputes, with a focus on the crucial technology aspects inherent in most company operations. This includes mitigating legal risks across various data-related contexts, including data privacy, data security, artificial intelligence applications, trade secrets, and intellectual property.
Viola co-chairs of the firm's Data Privacy and Security Practice, which under her leadership was selected as Law360’s 2023 Practice Group of the Year. Her extensive experience spans defeating privacy claims, opposing class certification, managing mass arbitrations, handling data breach remediation and litigation/settlement, and efficiently steering complex data and intellectual property cases through discovery and trial.
She has delivered major wins for clients, including a summary judgment win for Google in the Calhoun v. Google data privacy class action, which the Daily Journal featured as one of the Top Verdicts in 2022. Other noteworthy successes include securing summary judgment in a significant Chrome user data privacy case against Google, defeating a Rule 23(b)(3) class certification in a high-stakes private browsing user data privacy case against Google, achieving a motion to dismiss victory on behalf of Kaseya in a data breach liability action, and attaining a complete defense verdict in a patent trial for Novatel and Verizon.
In recognition of her experience and victories, Viola was recognized in the Lawdragon 500 Leading Global Cyber Lawyers and ranked by Legal 500 USA in the Data Privacy and Data Protection field (Media, Technology, and Telecoms) in both 2023 and 2024, and won the 2024 California Legal Awards in the category “Women Leaders in Tech Law.”
- AIG
- Barnes & Noble
- CaptureRX
- C.J. Segerstrom and Sons
- Conagra
- Digital River
- Hyundai Motor America
- Kia Motors America
- Mattel, Inc.
- MassMutual
- Novatel Wireless
- Pacific Gas and Electric Company
- Verizon
- University of Southern California
- Zynga
- Currently defending Google in a high-profile privacy class action alleging that Google improperly obtains browsing data when users have not opted to sync the Google Chrome browser with their Google account. The complaint asserts various federal and state claims, including wiretapping claims, state constitutional and common law privacy claims.
- Currently defending Verisk Analytics, Inc. in a complaint by JPMorgan Chase alleging trade secret misappropriation, and pending in the District of Delaware.
- Currently defending Snowflake Inc. in a series of putative class actions arising out of the alleged data breach of Snowflake customers’ accounts (AT&T, Ticketmaster/Livenation, Neiman Marcus, Advance Auto Parts, and LendingTree). The lawsuits are pending in the District of Montana and various other districts around the nation.
- Currently defending Cyderes and Fishtech Group, LLC , a leading cycle cyber security services provider, in a lawsuit brought by its customer Apex Tool Group in the aftermath of a cyberattack Apex suffered.
- Currently defending Intuit Inc. in a putative class action alleging a data breach, pending in the Northern District of California.
- Currently defending Bumble Inc. in a putative class action alleging violations of the Unruh Act, and pending in California Superior Court.
- Currently defending Yardi Systems in a mass action alleging violations of Daniel’s Law and pending in the District of New Jersey.
- Obtained dismissal of claims against Kaseya US LLC, an information technology managements and security software provider for managed service providers and small to medium sized business, in a lawsuit in Florida federal court arising from a ransomware attack against Kaseya perpetrated by the cyber terrorist gang REvil in July 2021.
- Successfully defended Google in a high-profile privacy class action regarding various Google offerings including Chrome, Google Analytics, and Google Ad Manager. The complaint asserted federal and state wiretapping claims, as well as state constitutional and common law privacy claims, on the allegation that Google receives users’ communications with websites and personal information when users are browsing the web in “private” or “incognito” mode. Defeated the Rule 23(b)(3) class allegations and settled Rule 23(b)(2) class for no monetary relief.
- Currently representing major companies who were users of U.S. rail freight services asserting antitrust claims against BNSF, CSX, Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific. The central allegation is that defendants colluded to use fuel surcharges as a means to impose inflated rail freight rates from July 2003 through December 2008. The cases are pending in various federal courts around the country.
- Represented a putative class of individuals who claim they paid ATM access fees at anticompetitively high levels as a result of an unlawful agreement among the dominant ATM networks and the nation’s largest retail banks.
- Obtained a complete defense jury verdict of no-infringement on four asserted patents for defendants Verizon Wireless and Novatel Wireless in a patent infringement matter relating to mobile hand-off and relay technology.
- On behalf of Songkick, sued Ticketmaster and Live Nation for antitrust violations in the artist presale ticketing services market. After completing fact and expert discovery, defeated the defendants’ summary judgment motion in its entirety (which no antitrust plaintiff had previously been able to accomplish against Ticketmaster) and subsequently resolved the case two weeks before trial with a $110 million settlement payment and acquisition of Songkick’s assets for a confidential amount.
- Successfully defended Barnes & Noble in class action alleging various violations of the Labor Code, including failure to provide meal breaks and rest breaks and failure to pay overtime. The Court denied certification in its entirety.
- For Mattel, obtained order from Ninth Circuit vacating verdicts of liability for alleged trade-secret misappropriation and damages award of more than $170 million; separately defeated antitrust claims purportedly worth $3 billion and RICO claims with similar alleged stakes; and obtained summary judgment on trade-secrets claims allegedly worth $1 billion.
- Yale Law School
(J.D., 2007)- Yale Journal for International Law:
- Submissions Editor
- Submissions Editor
- Yale Journal for International Law:
- University of Richmond
(B.A., summa cum laude, Interdisciplinary Studies, 2004)- Mace Award 2004 to the most outstanding graduating student
- C. Evans Award for Outstanding Achievement in Scholarship
- Phi Beta Kappa
- The State Bar of New York
- The State Bar of California
- United States Court of Appeals:
- Ninth Circuit
- United States District Court:
- Central District of California
- Albanian
- German
- Debevoise & Plimpton, LLP:
- Associate, 2007-2010
- Associate, 2007-2010
- UN Commission on International Trade Law, Vienna, Austria:
- Visiting Scholar on International Commercial Arbitration issues, worked on revision of UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules, 2007
- Legal 500 USA, Media, Technology, and Telecoms: Cyber Law (including Data Privacy and Data Protection), “Recommended Lawyers”, 2023 and 2024
- Lawdragon 500 Leading Global Cyber Lawyers for Data Privacy & Security Litigation, 2024
- Southern California “Rising Star” (2014-2018)
- Southern California “Top 50 Up-And-Coming Women Attorneys” (2017)
- "BIPA's Statutory Exemptions Post-Healthcare Ruling", Law360 (2024)
- “Potential Defendant Strategies Amid Calif. Privacy Questions”, Law360 (2024)
- "Reading The Tea Leaves of the FTC's Privacy Rulemaking", Law360 (2023)
- “A Wave of New Data Privacy Suits Tests Novel Theories”, Client Alert (2022)
- “The ADPPA May Be Coming: Assessing the Potential New Federal Privacy Regime”, Client Alert (2022)
- "2022 Data Privacy Suits Tested New Liability Theories", Law360 (2022)
- Inside the Proposed “New York Privacy Act”, New York Law Journal (2020)
- “US Outlook: Top Privacy Questions For Businesses Amid New Coronavirus Outbreak”, Client Alert (2020)
- "US Outlook: Cybersecurity Legal Implications For Businesses Amid New Coronavirus Outbreak", Client Alert (2020)
- Expert Analysis: "A Developing Patchwork Of Privacy Legislation In Washington", Law360 (2020)
- Expert Analysis: "A Brief Guide To Federal And State Cybersecurity Enforcement", Law360 (2020)
- Class Action Litigation Conference Speaker, Los Angeles, California (2019)
- Lessons from the Kosovo Status Talks: on Humanitarian Intervention and Self-Determination, 32 YALE J. INT’L LAW 255 (Essay)
- "Movie Camera Makers Settle Trade Secrets Suit Over Hacking", Law360 (2013)