Seyfarth & Shaw became the latest firm to launch a dedicated biometric privacy practice group on Monday, coincidentally, the same day that San Francisco authorities passed a bill to ban the use of facial recognition technology in surveillance by local agencies.

The practice group, composed of over 25 attorneys from such areas as litigation, labor and employment and policy, will be led by labor and employment attorneys Karla Grossenbacher and Thomas Ahlering.

“We're seeing more of a demand for both compliance advice and getting more clients who are served with biometric litigation of all kinds,” Grossenbacher said.

Chicago-based Seyfarth was one of the first law firms to defend an employer in a lawsuit asserting violations under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act. That 2008 law, which made Illinois the first state to regulate the collection of biometric information, has led to a surge in litigation, as it is the only law that allows private individuals to file a lawsuit for damages stemming from a violation.

After the Illinois Supreme Court ruled in January that an alleged violation of BIPA alone is sufficient for standing under Illinois law, practitioners expect to see even more activity in the area.

The firm aims to advise clients in three separate areas: compliance, class action litigation, and lobbying.

For the first category, Seyfarth aims to counsel clients on navigating the patchwork of state laws that govern the use of biometric data. One component involves crafting workplace policies and procedures that comply with these varied legislative obligations over biometric data collection and storage.

The firm also seeks to help clients ward off potential biometric class action litigation.

“There are lots of procedural defenses to these cases, especially on the class action level, and we're always looking for the best way to defend our clients in these cases,” Grossenbacher said.

And Seyfarth will also monitor proposed and existing biometric legislation and push for the interests of its clients. However, don't expect to see anything at the federal level anytime soon, Grossenbacher cautioned. She also practices in the data breach arena, and despite the rapid advance of technology, national legislation on that subject has yet to advance beyond the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986.

Other firms building out their biometric privacy practices in recent months include Shook, Hardy & Bacon, which in February hired a pair of lawyers who previously led Baker & Hostetler's BIPA practice, and Chicago's Hahn Loeser & Parks, which opened a new practice group in March.

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