Mara A. O’Malley is an associate in Manatt’s privacy and data security practice, with a significant focus on disputes. She is based in the firm’s Boston office.
Mara defends companies and their officers and directors in a wide range of civil litigation, including class actions, complex commercial disputes, government enforcement matters and internal investigations. She has represented companies in a variety of industries, including financial services, health care, technology, hospitality and adtech/martech. Mara’s litigation practice includes defending and prosecuting claims of violations of federal and state wiretapping statues; unfair competition; theft of trade secrets, intellectual property and confidential information; breach of fiduciary duty; breach of contract; and fraud.
Mara also focuses on all aspects of data management, discovery, data privacy and cybersecurity matters, including the development and implementation of security and privacy programs, incident/breach response and investigations, M&A diligence and deal support, and regulatory counseling.
Mara is an appointed member of Manatt’s associate leadership committee, has a significant pro bono practice, where she’s counseled clients on important matters such as law enforcement reform efforts in certain U.S. states and municipalities, and has represented the Massachusetts Board of Bar Examiners on investigation matters.
Examples of Mara’s representations include:
- Advising various clients on federal and various state wiretapping statutes related to website pixels, cookies, tracking technologies, and chatbots. For example, defending healthtech provider in federal court litigation regarding alleged wiretapping violations through the deployment of social media pixels on its website.
- For a global financial institution and asset manager, serving as coordinating counsel in breach of contract litigation involving ten consolidated actions, including handling all discovery (~100 depositions) and data handling obligations for the outside counsel team.
- Represented a leading children’s hospital defending allegations in purported class action in state court alleging patient data was inappropriately accessed in violation of privacy and security disclosures.
- Represented a leading publisher of legal, business and regulatory information as a plaintiff in federal court alleging the unauthorized taking of millions of dollars of protected data scraped through an online portal using a bot or “data scraper.”