Cassandra Gaedt-Sheckter is a partner in the Palo Alto office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.  She practices in the firm’s Privacy, Cybersecurity and Data Innovation group, with a focus on data privacy, cybersecurity and data regulatory litigation, enforcement, transactional, and counseling representations.

Ms. Gaedt-Sheckter has substantial experience advising companies on privacy and cybersecurity issues, including relating to legal and regulatory compliance with the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rules (COPPA), and other federal, state, and international laws and regulations. She also has extensive experience counseling on data breach response management and notification concerns, and privacy and cybersecurity compliance risk assessments. Ms. Gaedt-Sheckter further represents clients across industries—including consumer product, software, manufacturing, home appliance service, and healthcare companies—in the context of product and program development, merger and acquisition privacy and cybersecurity due diligence, and pre-litigation negotiation.

Ms. Gaedt-Sheckter also represents leading technology companies in federal and state courts throughout the country, on a variety of technologies, including relating to social media, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, mobile gaming, telecommunications, enterprise software, and consumer electronics.  She has significant experience in all aspects of litigation—particularly relating to privacy, cybersecurity, and patent claims—serving as lead associate on expert and fact discovery and pre-trial hearings and briefing, and participating in multiple bench and jury trials.  Ms. Gaedt-Sheckter is licensed to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a patent attorney, and is a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/US).

Ms. Gaedt-Sheckter maintains a significant pro bono practice as well, including successfully obtaining asylum for a Chinese immigrant, representing families in conservatorship proceedings, and advising non-profit and research companies on privacy programs and policies.

Select notable engagements include:

• Counseling, as lead attorney, several dozen clients from various technology, retail, financial, and other industries on CCPA and other recently-implemented state law compliance matters.
• Assisting private equity companies with privacy and cybersecurity due diligence, drafting related agreements, and implementing post-acquisition privacy compliance programs.
• Counseling manufacturing, shipping, and other essential and non-essential businesses on implementing COVID-19 crisis management and prevention programs during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Representing a consumer electronics company in federal MDL and state actions, and government inquiries, with respect to computer fraud and abuse claims, and related claims.
• Representing a media entertainment company in a class action relating to alleged collection of personal data from minors.
• Counseling a social media company, and its AR/VR division, on myriad privacy issues, including regarding GDPR, marketing, and general policies.
• Counseling large healthcare conglomerate on compliance with European regulations compared with CCPA.
• Securing a jury verdict of non-infringement on behalf of a major wireless telecommunications company, where two other major competitors had already been found liable or settled with the plaintiff.
• Obtaining a complete dismissal with prejudice on behalf of a major wireless telecommunications company after a finding during expert discovery undermined plaintiff’s case.
• Securing a § 101 patent-ineligibility decision on behalf of multiple mobile and video game defendants, which was subsequently affirmed by the Federal Circuit.
• Representing a medical device company regarding deceptive and unfair trade practices, unfair competition, false advertising, and patent infringement claims relating to robotic surgical systems, and submitting an ultimately successful inter partes review on opposing party’s patents.
• Representing a technology company against patent infringement claims, and relating to reexaminations regarding software patents on scalable graphics.

Ms. Gaedt-Sheckter received her law degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 2011, where she was elected to the Order of the Coif.  While in law school, she served as President of the Health Law Society and was selected to the Moot Court Honors Program.  In 2008, Ms. Gaedt-Sheckter graduated cum laude from University of California, Los Angeles with a Bachelor of Science degree in Anthropology, and a minor in Political Science.

Ms. Gaedt-Sheckter is a member of the State Bar of California.