Michelle Doolin is a litigation partner, Chair of the San Diego Litigation Department and Co-Chair of the Firm's national Commercial Class Action practice. She joined the Firm in 1995 and is resident in the San Diego office. In 2009 and 2014, Ms. Doolin was named one of the Top 100 Women Litigators in California by the Daily Journal and was recognized in the 2010 and 2014 editions of Southern California Super Lawyers in the category of business litigation. She also was honored for her litigation work in the 2013 edition of Benchmark Litigation. In 2015, she was named as one of the Best Lawyers in America in the practice area of Mass Tort Litigation/Class Action - Defendants.
Ms. Doolin's practice focuses on class action litigation and counseling clients on a wide variety of consumer and privacy related laws. She has represented numerous companies in various industries in a variety of nationwide and state-wide class actions, including:
California consumer class actions brought under Civil Code section 1747.08 of the Song Beverly Credit Card Act (collection of personal information in a credit card transaction);
Federal nationwide consumer class actions and California consumer class actions alleging false and deceptive advertising under the Consumer Legal Remedies Act (Civil Code § 1750 et seq.), Unfair Competition Law (Business & Professions Code § 17200 et seq.), and False Advertising Law (Business & Profession Code § 17500 et seq.);
Federal nationwide gift card class actions brought under the Federal Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act and state specific class actions brought under various state gift card laws;
Wage and hour collective and class actions under both federal and state law, including federal overtime collection, "off-the-clock," and exempt classification class actions and California overtime exemption, overtime calculation, meal and rest break period, vacation policy, unlawful deductions from wages, employment applications, state WARN Act, Private Attorney General Act, and Unfair Competition Law class actions; and
Federal nationwide consumer class actions under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) for alleged violations of 15 U.S.C. § 1681c(g) of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA).
Ms. Doolin is an expert on California's Song-Beverly Credit Card Act. She has provided extensive counseling and represented numerous retailers in over 50 class actions brought under the statute. She led the team that obtained a major victory for companies doing business in California with the first published appellate court decision in a class action under the Song-Beverly Credit Card Act related to return transactions. The court ruled that the statute did not apply to return transactions and had a one year limitations period. See, TJX Companies, Inc. v. Superior Court, 163 Cal.App.4th 80 (2008). In another class action under the Song-Beverly Credit Card Act, Ms. Doolin successfully led the team that obtained a federal court decision holding that plaintiffs are not entitled to a jury trial. See, In re Payless ShoeSource, Inc., No. 09-MD-2022 FCD GGH, 2009 WL 3233820 (E.D. Cal. Sept. 11, 2009). Recently, she led the team that defeated class certification in a case brought against Nike, Inc. that alleged violations of the statute relating to the collection of customer information. See, In re Gormley v. Nike Inc., 2013 WL 322538 (N.D. Cal. Jan 28, 2013).
Ms. Doolin also has extensive experience in litigating state and federal cases styled as nationwide product defect class actions that assert various claims for breach of express, implied, and statutory warranties on behalf of consumer products companies. She led the team that obtained dismissal of all claims with prejudice on a motion to dismiss on behalf of Sony. See, In re Sony Grand WEGA KDF-E A10/A20 Series Rear Projection HDTV Television Litig., 758 F.Supp. 2d 1077 (S.D. Cal. 2010). In another matter for Sony, she obtained dismissal of false and deceptive advertising, unfair competition, and breach of warranty claims in a case asserting alleged defects with certain television models. See, Marchante v. Sony Corp. of Am., 2011 WL 6027602 (S.D. Cal. Dec. 5, 2011).
Ms. Doolin also led the team that defeated class certification in one of the first FACTA cases filed against an online business and the first denial of class certification in a FACTA class action involving an online business. Vasquez-Torres v. StubHub, Inc., CV 07-1328, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 22503 (C.D. Cal. Mar. 4, 2008).
Ms. Doolin has experience coordinating California class actions before the Judicial Counsel of Coordination and experience practicing before the Federal Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (MDL Panel), and has successfully moved to transfer and centralize a number of class cases. See, e.g., In re TJX Companies, Inc., 505 F.Supp.2d 1379 (J.P.M.L. 2007); In re Payless Shoesource, Inc., California Song Beverly Credit Card Act Litigation, 609 F.Supp.2d 1372 (J.P.M.L. 2009); In re: LivingSocial Marketing Litigation, 807 F.Supp.2d 1379 (J.P.M.L. 2011).
She has also handled a number of public access cases under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and counseled clients on a number of ADA related issues.
Ms. Doolin received a JD, magna cum laude, in 1995 from the University of San Diego School of Law where she was elected to Order of the Coif and was a member of the San Diego Law Review. In 1991, Ms. Doolin received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Finance and a Minor in Economics, magna cum laude, from California State University, Long Beach, where she was a recipient of the Alumni Scholar Award and member of the Financial Management Association.
Prior to attending law school, Ms. Doolin worked as a Financial Analyst with Loral Aeronutronics.
