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Two weeks after the first cases were filed over the data breach at the regional convenience store chain Wawa, a dispute has arisen over who should head the proposed class action litigation fallout, with a New York law firm pushing back against efforts by Pennsylvania lawyers to lead the fight.

On Thursday, Benjamin Johns of Chimicles Schwartz Kriner & Donaldson-Smith in Haverford, Pennsylvania, and Philadelphia-based lawyer Sherrie Savett of Berger Montague asked a federal court to consolidate several proposed class action lawsuits and have them appointed as lead counsel. The requests were filed in the nearly dozen lawsuits that have been filed since the Pennsylvania-based convenience store chain announced late last month that it had been hacked.

The motions, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, also asked the court to appoint attorneys from Ahdoot & Wolfson in Los Angeles; Federman & Sherwood in Oklahoma City; Philadelphia-based Kohn Swift & Graf; and New York-based firms Stull, Stull & Brody and Milberg Phillips Grossman.

However, on Friday, attorney Linda Nussbaum of Nussbaum Law Group filed a response, saying the request by Johns and Savett was "premature" and that she also planned to move to be appointed lead counsel.

According to Nussbaum's motion, during a phone call last week with several attorneys representing plaintiffs, the lawyers agreed to leave consolidation up to the court.

"That is why I was surprised to receive the above-referenced motion," Nussbaum said, adding in a footnote that no one from Berger Montague had been on the call. "The firms that filed [Thursday's motion] collectively represent only five of the many plaintiffs in the related cases. None of the remaining plaintiffs were previously informed of the motion, much less consented to it. I therefore respectfully request that the court deny the pending motion."

The first lawsuits over the data breach began to be filed Dec. 20—the day after Wawa's CEO said in an open letter there had been a breach of the company card payment data. According to the letter, malware that had been active since March was discovered Dec. 10, and the company contained it by Dec. 12. The letter said the malware potentially exposed payment card information from customers at all Wawa locations, including credit and debit card numbers, expiration dates and names.

As of Friday afternoon, 11 lawsuits had been filed over the breach in the Eastern District, with some complaints being filed on behalf of several plaintiffs. The cases were filed by a total of 17 law firms from across the country.

According to the filing from Johns and Savett, their firms are best suited to lead the lawsuits, given their experience on leadership committees in consumer class actions and their familiarity with data breach litigation. The filing also said they have been contacted by hundreds of Wawa customers since the breach, and have already retained a data security expert.

"Data breach cases are a relatively new type of litigation and present unique and novel issues of fact and law that are evolving. They further require an understanding of the technical issues of data hacking, data privacy measures and industry standards," Johns and Savett said in the filing. "Appointing lead class counsel experienced in data breach litigation is in the best interest of the potential class members."

Nussbaum, however, said in her two-page response that other attorneys were inclined to wait for the court to consolidate the cases before a single judge, "rather than acting prematurely and contrary to the preferences of whoever is assigned to the case."

During a phone call Friday, Nussbaum, whose firm has been involved in data breach litigations against Capital One and Quest Diagnostics, said her firm planned to file three more suits Friday over the data breach, which would make it so the firm is representing plaintiffs from every state where Wawa does business.

"We think that the filings were premature, and we think the proper procedure is for the court to send all the cases to one judge," she said.

Johns declined to comment outside Thursday's filing, saying he preferred to "let this play out before the court."

Savett did not return a call seeking comment.