Welcome to Critical Mass, Law.com's weekly briefing for class action and mass tort attorneys. How are plaintiffs' firms dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak? Also, the coronavirus has put several talcum powder trials on hold. And, in an apparent Equifax redux, plaintiffs' lawyers lashed out at objectors to a $117.5 million data breach settlement with Yahoo.

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Plaintiffs' Lawyers: "We Are Fully Remote."

As the coronavirus outbreak expands, Big Law firms have scrambled to work from home, while also setting up COVID-19 practice groups and webinars for their clients. But what are plaintiffs' firms doing?

I reached out to some of the firms that file class actions and mass torts to see how the coronavirus outbreak has impacted them. Here's some of their responses:

Elizabeth Cabraser (Lieff Cabraser): "One thing that surprised me is I'm spending probably 10-12 hours a day on telephonic conferences with lawyers. We're getting a lot done, because we don't have anywhere to go. I have an automatic 'time to get on an airplane' reflex, but I haven't been able to get on airplanes, so the inefficiencies of travel are eliminated. Everybody is in touch all the time, because we're not on a plane for six hours with bad WiFi. It's a revelation to me, just how inefficient all the time before was. Suddenly, there is more time to communicate with people and actually get things done. I don't think it's going to go back to the way it was. I don't think it can."

Paul Geller (Robbins Geller): "We are taking things day by day with a 'health and safety first' approach. We are prepared for a work at home scenario if it comes to that. We had several lawyers slotted to speak at an upcoming international corporate governance conference in London and made the decision to pull out (and the conference was subsequently postponed). I imagine we are having the same types of discussions and planning sessions that most multi-office businesses are having."

Hunter Shkolnik (Napoli Shkolnik): "The firm, Paul Napoli and Marie Napoli, go back to 9/11 where their offices were right across the street from the site. We have developed, over the years, the current version of the law firm. We are fully remote. And literally, at a moment's notice, we can just pivot to being every single employee work remote. The only problem is regular mail, hard mail. And that's even been dealt with where we have a couple employees at each office whose job is to pick up the mail at post offices and process them at remote locations."

A Pause in Talc Powder Trials

Several talcum powder trials are on hold due to the coronavirus. A Georgia judge in the retrial of an ovarian cancer case against Johnson & Johnson in Fulton County State Court took the original April 6 trial off her calendar. The first trial ended in a mistrial last year. Meanwhile, an Illinois judge postponed the state's first ovarian cancer trial against Johnson & Johnson, planned for May 4.

Another case in Philadelphia's Court of Common Pleas remains scheduled for June 15. Ted Meadows (Beasley Allen), who represents the plaintiffs in all three cases, told me:

"I was looking at three trials back-to-back-to-back. We've been busy getting ready for all three. That effort continues even though they're postponed. My hope is these judges will reset these cases for trial as soon as possible, and so we'll continue to get ready for those trials in hopes that the judges are thinking the same things we are."

Battle Erupts Over Yahoo Breach Settlement

Lawyers hoping to get a proposed $117.5 million deal with Yahoo approved next month criticized objectors and their counsel ahead of final approval. If that sounds familiar, it's because, in the $1.4 billion Equifax deal, U.S. District Judge Thomas Thrash also chastised the objectors after plaintiffs' attorneys slammed them for holding up settlement payouts.

In a March 19 motion for final approval of the Yahoo settlement, plaintiffs' attorneys John Yanchunis [Morgan & Morgan] and Stuart Davidson [Robbins Geller] said that objector Christopher Bandas filed "yet another cookie-cutter, vexatious objection to a class action settlement," while another, Ryan Bowman, sought an "incentive fee" in return for the withdrawal of his objection, according to a Feb. 6 email attached to their court filing. A third objector, Leonard Deshawn Scott, was a "convicted serial rapist and lifetime high-risk sex offender."

U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh, who rejected an initial $85 million settlement with Yahoo, is set to hear arguments on April 9 (telephonically, of course).

Here's what else is happening:

Amazon Sued: A class action filed on March 19 alleges Amazon violates federal antitrust law through its agreements with its third-party sellers. The suit, filed by Steve Berman (Hagens Berman) and Derek Loeser (Keller Rohrback), alleges that Amazon's policies force third-party sellers to sell their products on their own sites, or competitor sites, at the same prices as they do on Amazon. The suit comes as the DOJ and FTC launched antitrust investigations of high-tech companies, including Amazon, last year.

Tezos Truce: Shareholders suing over Tezos blockchain's initial coin offering reached a $25 million settlement. The 2017 offering raised the equivalent of $232 million in Bitcoin and Ethereum, but infighting within Tezos leadership prompted class actions. Hung Ta [HGT Law] and Jeff Block [Block & Leviton] represented the plaintiffs. On the defense side, Patrick Gibbs [Cooley] and Brian Klein [Baker Marquart] represented Arthur and Kathleen Breitman, the husband-and-wife team behind Tezos, and their company, Dynamic Ledger Solutions, and Neal Potischman [Davis Polk & Wardwell] represented the Tezos Foundation.

PG&E Plea: Pacific Gas and Electric Co. agreed to plead guilty on Monday to 85 counts tied to the 2018 wildfire that killed 84 people in Northern California. The agreement, with Butte County, includes 84 charges of involuntary manslaughter and one count of unlawfully starting a fire. PG&E, in the midst of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, also agreed to pay the maximum fines of about $4 million. PG&E previously pleaded guilty to a felony over the 2010 pipeline explosion in San Bruno, which killed eight people and injured dozens more.

Thanks for reading Critical Mass! I will see you next week.