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2025 Consumer and Unfair Competition Law Institute
January 31 @ 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
*Online Registration is now closed. Onsite registration will be available
City Club LA
555 Flower St, 51st Floor
Los Angeles
Previously known as the UCL Institute, the annual Consumer and Unfair Competition Law Institute (CUCLI) is a not-to-be-missed event that brings together leading practitioners from across the private and public sector. This full-day multi-session conference features programs on cutting edge issues including government enforcement priorities, recent changes in the law, and other key topics in consumer and unfair competition law, as well as various networking opportunities throughout the day including a lunch and happy hour reception.
This year, CUCLI will also feature the inaugural presentation of the Consumer and Unfair Competition Law Award, a new annual award recognizing outstanding achievement in the practice of consumer and unfair competition law.
Schedule
9:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. | Judges’ Panel
A moderated Q&A with judges from the state, federal, and appellate level who will discuss complex case management and best practices for consumer and unfair competition litigation.
Moderator: Christina Tusan
Christina Tusan

Christina Tusan is a consumer protection trial attorney who has investigated, prosecuted, and supervised the litigation of complex unfair competition cases in federal and state courts on behalf of the Federal Trade Commission, the California Attorney General, and the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office. Ms. Tusan has obtained judgments or negotiated settlements on consumer protection matters valued at over $1 billion. Ms. Tusan has spent the last 26 years successfully investigating and litigating Unfair Competition Law cases, False Advertising Law cases, and Unfair or Deceptive Acts or Practices cases on behalf of consumers. Ms. Tusan has also litigated complex consumer and privacy cases while in privacy practice. She is the founder of Tusan Law, PC, where she continues to pursue consumer protection, privacy, and whistleblower cases.
Speakers:
Hon. David S. Cunningham III | Los Angeles County Superior Court, Complex Civil Litigation Program

The Hon. David S. Cunningham III is a Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge. He serves as the Supervising Judge for the Complex Civil Litigation Program, presiding over product liability cases, consumer protection class actions, labor-related class actions, and mass torts. He was appointed to the court by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on January 22, 2009.
Judge Cunningham graduated with his B.A. in Economics from the University of Southern California (USC) in 1977. He was awarded a Root-Tilden-Kern Public Service Scholarship and received his Juris Doctorate from the New York University School of Law in 1980.
In the fall of 1980, Judge Cunningham was admitted to the New York State Bar and began his legal career as an attorney in the Honors Program with the United States Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Voting Rights Section in Washington, D.C. He worked on the redistricting plan for the Texas House of Representatives and tried several voting rights cases throughout the South. His work aided Congress in its decision to extend the Voting Rights Act another 25 years in 1982.
In 1983, upon returning to California, Judge Cunningham was admitted to the California State Bar and served as a judicial clerk for the Hon. Terry J. Hatter, Jr. of the United States District Court for the Central District of California. In 1984, Judge Cunningham joined the Beverly Hills Office of Finley Kumble Heine Underberg Manley & Casey as an associate. From 1987 to 1991, while simultaneously developing his practice, he taught financial institutions and trial advocacy courses at Loyola Law School.
Cunningham grew his public law practice in the early nineties by representing many municipal entities, redevelopment agencies, the Los Angeles Airport, the LA World Port Authority, Southern California Edison, and several public utilities. In 2006, Judge Cunningham joined the California-based law firm of Meyers Nave Riback Silver & Wilson as a principal, specializing in eminent domain, real estate-related matters, and public law.
While practicing law in the private sector, Cunningham also served as a police commissioner for the Los Angeles Police Department from 2001 to 2005. It was a challenging time for the City of Los Angeles, coming on the heels of the worst corruption scandal in the history of the Los Angeles Police Department, a rise in crime, and federal scrutiny of the city’s policing practices. He served on the commission for four years, becoming its president in 2003. He saw the LAPD move forward in 2003- 2005 with sweeping reforms and strengthened civilian leadership.
Judge Cunningham has continued his academic interest in the law. Since 2015, he has been an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California, Gould Law School, periodically teaching evidence to second—and third-year law students. From 2016 to 2019, he served on the Executive Board of the California Judges Association, the “Voice of the Judiciary.”
Hon. Michael W. Fitzgerald | United States District Court for the Central District of California

Michael W. Fitzgerald is a United States District Judge for the Central District of California. Judge Fitzgerald was appointed in 2012. As a district judge, he has presided over numerous civil and criminal trials. Judge Fitzgerald has served as the Chair of the district court’s Criminal Justice Act Committee and Attorney Liaison Committee. Currently, he is the 9th Circuit representative to the Committee on Space and Facilities of the Judicial Conference of the United States. He also is a past President of the Los Angeles Chapter of the Federal Bar Association. He has received the Daniel O’Connell Award from the Irish American Bar Association and the IP Vanguard Award (Judicial) from the California Lawyers Association. Before his appointment, Judge Fitzgerald practiced for seventeen years at Corbin, Fitzgerald & Athey LLP and its predecessor firms. He focused his practice on federal and regulatory criminal cases and investigations. Judge Fitzgerald served as an Assistant United States Attorney in Los Angeles from 1988 to 1991, during which time he tried twenty cases, handled numerous appeals, and conducted large money laundering investigations. Judge Fitzgerald clerked for the Honorable Irving R. Kaufman of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. In 1985, he graduated from the School of Law of the University of California at Berkeley (Berkeley Law), where he was elected to the Order of the Coif, served as Managing Editor of the Industrial Relations Law Journal (now the Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law), and received the American Jurisprudence Award in Criminal Law. He received his undergraduate degree magna cum laude from Harvard University.
Hon. Jacqueline H. Nguyen | United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth CircuitÂ

Hon. Jacqueline H. Nguyen was confirmed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on May 7, 2012. She received her commission on May 14, 2012, becoming the first Asian American woman to serve on a federal court of appeals. Prior to her confirmation to the Ninth Circuit, Judge Nguyen was a district judge on the United States District Court for the Central District of California. She also served previously as a trial judge on the Los Angeles County Superior Court, from 2002 to 2009. Prior to taking the bench, Judge Nguyen spent seven years as an Assistant United States Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles, where she was also a Deputy Chief in charge of training new AUSAs. Judge Nguyen began her legal career in private practice. Judge Nguyen received her A.B. from Occidental College in 1987 and earned her J.D. from UCLA Law School in 1991.
Judge Nguyen has long been actively engaged in the legal community. As a lawyer, she served on various boards including the Women Lawyers’ Association of Los Angeles County, the Southern California Chinese Lawyers’ Association, and the Japanese American Bar Association. She co-founded and served as the President of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association from 1999 to 2000. As a judge, she continues to be engaged in a number of organizations, including the ABA’s Appellate Judges Conference, the Appellate Judges Education Institute, the American Law Institute, and the Federal Judges Association. She also serves on the Judicial Council for the Ninth Circuit and a number of committees, including the Ninth Circuit Standing Committee on Federal Public Defenders and the National Advisory Committee on Criminal Rules.
10:45 a.m. – 11:45 a.m. | Recent Developments in Consumer Protection and Unfair Competition Law
Join consumer protection leaders from the public and private sectors as they offer insights into the consumer protection landscape, including the latest from government enforcement actions and private litigation, changes in the law, and emerging issues and enforcement priorities for 2025 and beyond. Moderator: Maricela Segura, Regional Director, Federal Trade Commission, Western Region, Los Angeles
Moderator: Maricela Segura
Maricela Segura

Maricela Segura is Director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Western Region Los Angeles office. Under her leadership the Los Angeles team have successfully prosecuted cases tackling emerging consumer protection issues, including matters involving data protection and privacy, deceptive web design, consumer reviews, fintech, credit and financing, and children’s safety online. Maricela regularly speaks to consumer and business groups about the latest FTC guidance and law enforcement efforts. She is a Senior Fellow with the Partnership for Public Service’s Excellence in Government program and received her law degree from the University of Southern California and her undergraduate degree from University of California Los Angeles.
Speakers:
Nick Akers | Senior Assistant Attorney General, California Department of Justice, Consumer Protection Section

Nicklas A. Akers is the Senior Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Consumer Protection Section of the California Department of Justice, which investigates and prosecutes violations of California’s consumer protection and privacy laws. His representative matters include People v. Heald (Corinthian Colleges), the Volkswagen emissions litigation, and the office’s residential mortgage backed securities, opioids, and social media litigation . Nick also serves as a Judge Advocate and legal assistance attorney in the California State Guard. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School, the Harvard School of Public Health, and UCLA, and he is admitted in California, Massachusetts and New York.
Ted Mermin | Executive Director, U.C. Berkeley Center for Consumer Law & Economic Justice

Ted Mermin is the founder and executive director of the UC Berkeley Center for Consumer Law & Economic Justice, the leading academic consumer law institution in the United States. In addition to offering 20 courses in consumer law at Berkeley – more than any other law school in the world – the Center convenes four annual or biennial conferences; four regular regional and statewide convenings of experts from government, legal services, nonprofits, and academia; and symposia on the application of consumer law to ameliorate problems ranging from the climate crisis, to conditions in prisons and detention centers, to coerced debt arising from abusive relationships. The Center regularly files amicus briefs in appellate courts throughout California and the United States, including the brief relied on by the California Supreme Court in California Capital Ins. Co v. Hoehn (2024), which overturned decades of court of appeal decisions to establish the rule that a judgment based on a complaint that was never properly served may be challenged at any time. The Center also runs the burgeoning Consumer Law Advocates, Students and Scholars (CLASS) Network, which promotes the teaching and learning of consumer law and economic justice in law schools around the nation. At Berkeley Law, Ted teaches Consumer Protection Law, Comparative Consumer Protection Law and the Consumer Law & Economic Justice Workshop.
Ted also leads the California Low-Income Consumer Coalition, a partnership of free legal service providers dedicated to furthering the rights of low-income Californians by changing the law. CLICC has drafted and co-sponsored laws to overhaul debt collection practices in the state, to preserve struggling families’ assets in the face of bank levies and wage garnishment, to eliminate hidden junk fees, and to establish the state’s revamped Department of Financial Protection and Innovation.
And he complains. Oh, how he complains. Partly in order to stop the complaining, the CLA Antitrust and Unfair Competition Law Section this year renamed itself the Antitrust and Consumer Protection Law Section. (And there was much rejoicing.)
Elizabeth C. Pritzker, Partner, Pritzker Levine LLP

Elizabeth C. Pritzker is a co-founding partner of Pritzker Levine LLP, a Northern California-based law firm, where she represents consumers, shareholders and businesses harmed by corporate wrongdoing and unfair competition. Elizabeth practices exclusively in the areas of litigation, trial and client counseling. She has successfully led cases against monopolists, price-fixing cartels, big tech, major manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, and the NCAA.
Elizabeth is a past Chair of the Antitrust and Unfair Competition Law Section and a frequent contributor to Section publications, webinars and seminars. Increasing diversity in the legal profession has been one of Elizabeth’s interests and goals for many years. She was instrumental in creating the Section’s Diversity & Inclusion Fellowship and increasing the Section’s focus on ensuring diversity on the Executive Committee and during Section events.
Elizabeth was honored with the Section’s Antitrust Lawyer of the Year award in 2022, and has twice been recognized by the American Antitrust Institute with its annual Outstanding Antitrust Litigation Achievement in Private Law Practice award.
Victoria L. Weatherford, Partner, BakerHostetler

Victoria L. Weatherford is an experienced first-chair trial partner in the San Francisco office of BakerHostetler LLP, defending clients in “bet the company” trials nationwide in areas as diverse as defamation, unfair competition, false advertising, public nuisance, and intellectual property. She also focuses her practice on a wide range of consumer protection and commercial litigation matters, with particular emphasis on representing clients in the technology and consumer products industries in class action and government investigation and enforcement matters.
She previously served for four years as a Deputy City Attorney at the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office, where she enforced California’s unfair competition, false advertising, gun control, and health and safety laws statewide. Her lawsuits garnered national headlines and resulted in tens of millions of dollars in civil penalties and statewide injunctive relief, and Victoria received multiple Commendations from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the San Francisco Mayor, and the California State Senate and State Assembly.
Victoria serves on the Executive Committee of the Federal Bar Association’s Northern District of California chapter, the UCL Committee of the California Lawyers Association Antitrust and Unfair Competition Law Section, and is a leader of the Silicon Valley chapter of ChIPs. She serves as a Director of the Yale Law School Fund Board and as a Board Director of the San Francisco Opera Guild. Victoria is a Carnegie New Leader at the Carnegie Council, a Term Member at the Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the Pacific Council, a 2018 U.S.-Spain Council Young Leader, and a 2018-2019 Leadership San Francisco graduate.
Victoria graduated from Yale Law School, where she served as a Notes Editor of the Yale Law Journal and Executive Editor of the Yale Journal on Regulation. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles, graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, and received the UCLA Alumni Association Distinguished Senior Award.
12:15 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. | The FTC Under Biden: A Critical Appraisal
During this fireside chat, Former Attorney Advisor to Chair Lina Khan at the FTC will discuss the Biden Administration’s FTC and its efforts in consumer protection with Daniel Kaufman of BakerHostetler. This will be a candid and insightful retrospective look at the last few years.
Speakers:
Tom Dahdouh, former Attorney Advisor to Chair Lina Khan, Federal Trade Commission

Tom Dahdouh, a longtime FTC attorney, was most recently Attorney Advisor to FTC Chair Lina M. Khan. Before that, he served as Regional Director of the Western Regional Office, with offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles, from 2013 to 2019, and then Regional Director of the Western Region San Francisco Office from 2020 to 2021. Before those positions, he served as an Attorney Advisor to two FTC Commissioners in the 1990’s, and then was a staff attorney for many years before becoming Regional Director. His experience covers federal consumer protection, privacy and antitrust law.
Daniel Kaufman, Partner, BakerHostetler

Daniel Kaufman joined BakerHostetler’s Advertising, Marketing and Digital Media team in 2021 after 23-year career at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Bureau of Consumer Protection. He has advised clients on a wide range of FTC concerns, including advertising and green claims, data practices, online billing practices, the use of endorsements and testimonials and country of origin claims. He has represented numerous companies that are subject to FTC consumer protection and privacy investigations on topics ranging from billing practices to online disclosures and the use of data for advertising purposes.
A preeminent thought leader and subject matter authority in advertising and data privacy issues, he is a frequent speaker on consumer protection matters and can provide context for the challenges our clients face in the areas of privacy and consumer advertising. He has unique insights into what is in store for the industry as the FTC changes direction with new leadership, new priorities, the use of different legal authorities and collaborations with state and federal partners.
1:15 p.m. – 2:15 p.m. | Artificial Intelligence and Consumer Protection
The panel will discuss various threats that AI poses to consumers, potential government and private legal actions to which those threats may give rise (including under California’s Unfair Competition Law), and steps businesses can take to avoid harming consumers and ending up in legal trouble.
Moderator: Joshua P. Davis, Shareholder, Berger Montague PC; Research Professor, UC College of the Law, San Francisco
Joshua P. Davis is the managing shareholder of Berger Montague PC’s San Francisco office, where he focuses his practice on antitrust class actions, appeals, and serving as a consulting and testifying expert on complex litigation ethics. He also is a research professor at U.C. Law San Francisco (formerly Hastings). He has written dozens of articles and book chapters on various subjects, including AI, ethics and law. He is currently writing a book, “Unnatural Law: AI, Consciousness, Ethics, and Legal Theory” (forthcoming in Cambridge University Press).

Speakers:
- Anne K. Davis, Partner, Bleichmar Fonti & Auld LLP
- Daniel Goldberg, Chair of the Data Strategy, Privacy & Security Group
- Dr. Jennifer King, Privacy and Data Policy Fellow at Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence; Senior Policy Analyst, National Telecommunications and Information Administration
Anne K. Davis | Partner, Bleichmar Fonti & Auld LLP

Anne Davis is a partner in Bleichmar Fonti & Auld’s (BFA) Oakland, California office. She has more than a decade of experience representing consumers, corporations, officers & directors in complex data privacy, antitrust, consumer, and securities class and derivative actions. Prior to joining BFA, Anne served as a Principal Counsel for Sales Practice Enforcement at the Financial Industry Regulatory (FINRA). Before FINRA, she was a senior associate at a global law firm, where she specialized in securities litigation and enforcement, complex civil litigation, and internal investigations.
Daniel Goldberg | Chair of the Data Strategy, Privacy & Security Group

Daniel M. Goldberg is Chair of the Data Strategy, Privacy & Security Group. With extensive experience and a practical approach, he is consistently recognized as a leading authority in data law. Daniel focuses on all types of matters involving data, including as follows:
Privacy, Security & AI Compliance
Daniel advises on privacy, security, and AI obligations related to consumer, business, and HR datasets, including under the FTC Act, comprehensive state privacy laws, sectoral laws, industry standards, and more. He assists with data governance and risk management, working closely with C-suite, legal, marketing, IT, and other stakeholders to evaluate data flows, assess and mitigate risks in products and features, and harmonize policies and procedures across jurisdictions and platforms. His work often involves analysis of high risk activities and management of sensitive datasets, including precise location data, children’s data, and health data. He has a deep understanding of advertising technology and evaluates SDK and other tracking technologies for compliance with platform requirements like Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) and privacy manifests. Daniel also advises on AI-related risks, such as algorithmic disgorgement, ethical data use, facial detection/recognition, and automated decision-making.
Interpretation & Enforcement
Daniel not only reads data laws, he helps shape their application. He has significant experience defending companies in data-related inquiries and regulatory enforcement actions, including leading response and settlement negotiations in one of the first public actions under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). He continues to manage inquiries and actions, including those that remain confidential.
Data Monetization & Strategic Use
Daniel helps companies lawfully unlock the value of their data assets, including through data licensing, API access, insights and benchmarks, third-party data marketplaces, targeted advertising, segment building, and training models. He advises on legal standards for de-identification and anonymization. Daniel structures and negotiates clean room agreements, identity resolution agreements, and media insertion orders. He also counsels on and negotiates data access and use agreements for developing and training Large Language Models (LLMs) and other AI technologies, including for major AI developers.
Technology Transactions
Daniel structures and negotiates a wide range of agreements involving data, including SaaS agreements, data storage agreements, data processing agreements, data transfer addendums, enterprise AI agreements, and more.
Leadership
Daniel is well-connected in the privacy community, having held leadership roles at IAPP, IAB, IAA, and other organizations. He frequently is quoted in the media and invited to speak on data issues. He has authored hundreds of articles on privacy law, and led efforts to publish the first-ever global guide on the impact of privacy laws on marketing and advertising by the Global Advertising Lawyers Alliance (GALA). For his latest legal insights, please visit the Firm’s Technology Law Updates blog.
Daniel is a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/US) and an Artificial Intelligence Governance Professional (AIGP). He is admitted to practice law in California.
Dr. Jennifer King, Privacy and Data Policy Fellow at Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence; Senior Policy Analyst, National Telecommunications and Information Administration

Dr. Jennifer King is the Privacy and Data Policy Fellow at the Stanford University Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence. An information scientist by training, Dr. King is a recognized expert and scholar in information privacy. Sitting at the intersection of human-computer interaction, law, and the social sciences, her research examines the public’s understanding and expectations of online privacy as well as the policy implications of emerging technologies. Most recently, her research explored alternatives to notice and consent (with the World Economic Forum), the impact of California’s new privacy laws, and dark patterns. Her past work includes projects focusing on social media, genetic privacy, mobile application platforms, the Internet of Things (IoT), and digital surveillance. Her scholarship has been recognized for its impact on policymaking by the Future of Privacy Forum, and she has been an invited speaker before the Federal Trade Commission at several Commission workshops. She has been featured in numerous publications and outlets, including The New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Wired, Recode, National Public Radio, CNBC, Bloomberg, CNET, Vox, Consumer Reports, NBC News, MIT Technology Review, among others.
2:15 p.m. – 3:15 p.m. | Ethics Session:Â Tech Savvy, Ethics in the Age of Technology
This presentation includes the creative property of others, used for teaching per the “Fair Use” language in 17 U.S.C. 107. Further use or distribution is not permitted.
Speaker:
Wendy L. Patrick

- Career trial attorney (including over 100 jury trials)
- Former Chair, California State Bar Ethics Committee (COPRAC)
- Association of Threat Assessment Professionals Certified Threat Manager
- Author of Why Bad Looks Good, Red Flags, and co-author of New York Times bestseller Reading People (revision)
- Psychology Today columnist (over 700 articles published)
Wendy L. Patrick is a career trial attorney, recognized by her peers as one of the Top Ten criminal attorneys in San Diego by the San Diego Daily Transcript, and was presented by the Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court with the California Public Lawyer of the Year award from the State Bar’s Public Law Section. Ms. Patrick has completed more than 160 trials, including over 100 jury trials ranging from stalking to domestic violence to first-degree murder.
Ms. Patrick has spent most of her career specializing in legal ethics. She is co-chair of the California District Attorneys Association Ethics Committee, a past Chair and Advisor of the California State Bar Ethics Committee (Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct), and past Chair of the San Diego County Bar Association’s (SDCBA) Legal Ethics Committee where she served a six-year term. She is widely published in the field of legal ethics and teaches ethics nationally on a regular basis. She writes and speaks on ethics both nationally and internationally.
On a personal note, Ms. Patrick holds a purple belt in Shorin-Ryu karate, is a concert violinist with the La Jolla Symphony, and plays the electric violin professionally with a rock band, performing both locally and in Hollywood.
3:15 p.m. – 5:15 p.m. | Award Presentation/Mixer & Reception
The California Lawyers Association’s Antitrust and Unfair Competition Law Section is pleased to announce its first annual Consumer and Unfair Competition Law Award. The inaugural Award is being given to the team of government litigators—from the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (CFPB), the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office, the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office, and the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office—that prosecuted student loan refinance companies and their leadership for making false promises to help students facing substantial student loan debt. The Award will be presented at the third annual Consumer and Unfair Competition Law Institute (CUCLI) at the City Club Los Angeles on January 31.
The action, CFPB, et al. v. Consumer Advocacy Center Inc., et al., was filed in the Central District of California against Consumer Advocacy Center Inc. d/b/a Premier Student Loan Center, True Count Staffing Inc. d/b/a SL Account Management, Prime Consulting LLC d/b/a Financial Preparation Services, and individuals associated with those entities. The action alleged that the defendants operated an unlawful student loan debt relief enterprise in Los Angeles and Southern California. They allegedly violated state and federal consumer protection statutes, including the federal Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 (CFPA), the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR), and California’s Unfair Competition Law (UCL), by making misrepresentations about Premier’s student loan services. Defendants allegedly charged and collected improper advance fees, automatically put loans in forbearance, and submitted false information to loan servicers and the federal government to qualify consumers for artificially low monthly payments. It also alleged the individuals substantially assisted the student loan debt relief companies in this conduct.
At the outset of the case, in October 2019, the government agencies obtained a temporary restraining order as well as an asset freeze and a court-appointed receiver. This TRO immediately halted the allegedly fraudulent business operations, froze defendants’ assets, and appointed a receiver, who was granted immediate access to several of defendants’ locations to take over defendants’ operations. The court also entered a stipulated preliminary injunction that prohibited defendants from collecting illegal advance fees and engaging in deception and extended the receivership and asset freeze that was imposed by the temporary restraining order. The case was litigated, and settlements and default judgments were entered against numerous defendants.
On July 7, 2023, the court granted partial summary judgment against the last remaining defendant, Kaine Wen, an owner and executive at Premier, for $243 million and injunctive relief. This included holding Wen personally responsible for $148 million in total civil penalties and jointly and severally liable for $95 million in consumer restitution. The order also required Wen to turn over certain assets, including cryptocurrency, and imposed broad injunctive relief, including a permanent, industry-wide ban on Wen. Wen has appealed, and the appeal is set for oral argument in March 2025.
As a result of this consumer protection enforcement action, 87,285 consumers nationwide received over $95 million in restitution related to a wide-ranging student loan servicing fraud, including 6,546 California consumers who received more than $7.1 million in restitution.
This enforcement action was noteworthy not only for the $243 million total judgment dollar amount but also because this is the first known example of California public consumer protection prosecutors using the UCL in conjunction with the CFPA and the TSR, along with the joint efforts of the CFPB, to access the CFPB’s victims relief fund—also known as the Civil Penalty Fund—to distribute restitution to all known victims.
To attend the conference and the award reception, you can register in advance via the following link or register onsite at the conference: https://calawyers.org/section/antitrust-unfair-competition-law/cucli/
Congratulations to this very deserving team!
- Evan Romanoff of the Office of the Minnesota Attorney General
- Gina Lee of the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office
- Louisa Kirakosian of the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office
- Christina Tusan (former) of the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office
- William Pletcher (former) of the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office
- Rebecca Morse (former) of the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office
- Miguel Ruiz (former) of the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office
- Sarah Preis of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
- Jesse Stewart of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
- Nathan Dimock of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
- Lynne Weaver of the Office of the North Carolina Attorney General
Registration Fees
- $75 for Non-Members
- $50 for Antitrust Members
- $40 for Antitrust New Lawyers
- $40 for Government and Non-Profit
- $65 for Non-Antitrust CLA Member
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We are excited to offer multiple sponsorship opportunities for our upcoming 2025 Consumer and Unfair Competition Law Institute at Los Angeles. As a sponsor, your organization will have the chance to align itself with one of the most important issues of our time and connect with an audience of legal professionals, policymakers, and thought leaders who are passionate about consumer and unfair competition issues. Learn more and sponsor today!
More Info
Cancellations and requests for refunds must be received in writing no later than Friday, January 24, 2025 and are subject to a 10% service fee. Refunds will not be available after Friday, January 24, 2025.
For special accommodations, please email us at Antitrust@calawyers.org.
For registration information, email ProgramRegistrations@calawyers.org. For program content and/or Section information, email Antitrust@calawyers.org.
This event may be recorded. By attending this event, you consent to be photographed, filmed, and/or otherwise recorded, and to any use, by the CLA, of your likeness, voice, and name in any and all media including social media. If you do not want your name or photo to be used, please let us know in advance. We cannot, however, honor requests to opt out of the use of your image or voice if you choose to ask a question during one of the event sessions.
We are committed to accessibility! Virtual events are equipped with closed captioning. To request an in-person accommodation, send us a note at accessibility@calawyers.org or contact us at 916-516-1760 for assistance.