Gregory T. Parks

Partner

Gregory T. Parks is a partner in Morgan Lewis's Litigation Practice, with a focus on commercial, privacy and consumer matters for retailers, financial services organizations, and other businesses. Mr. Parks counsels and represents clients in a wide variety of matters, including consumer class actions, data privacy class actions, privacy and data security compliance, litigation involving retailers, disputes arising from mergers and acquisitions, contract and indemnification matters, and fraud lawsuits.

Mr. Parks is co-head of the firm's cross-disciplinary Retail Practice Group, which focuses on the unique challenges facing retail companies. In this role, Mr. Parks represents retailers in consumer class actions, real estate litigation, and other similar matters. He also advises retail companies on a wide variety of operational matters including gift cards, loyalty programs, sale advertising, data collection and privacy, layaway programs, credit card compliance, and shoplifting prevention. He has litigated and published extensively on data privacy matters for retailers, including data privacy class actions. The Philadelphia Inquirer recently featured Mr. Parks' work counseling retail clients on the challenges of managing data privacy issues in the face of mounting public awareness of "identity theft," a maze of federal and state laws, and potential lawsuits around every corner. He has published several articles and taught several continuing legal education seminars on this subject.

Mr. Parks is also a leader of the firm's Privacy Working Group, focusing on data privacy and security of personal information that businesses collect about customers, consumers, employees and other individuals. Mr. Parks has counseled more than 100 clients on suspected or actual data breaches and compliance with various federal and state rules that sometimes require notification of affected individuals. He has helped more than 50 companies create plans to comply with various privacy and data security requirements including the FTC Red Flags Rule, the Massachusetts Data Protection laws, and similar requirements.

Mr. Parks also has a background in financial services and consumer finance matters, including work in both the prime and subprime mortgage industry. Long before the current crisis erupted, Mr. Parks was involved in litigating and trying cases in the subprime mortgage industry, including one matter where the trial resulted in a $25 million judgment in favor of our firm's client.

Pennsylvania Law & Politics named Mr. Parks a "Rising Star Super Lawyer", a distinction awarded to just 2% of eligible attorneys based on peer surveys. Pennsylvania Law Weekly named Mr. Parks a "Lawyer on the Fast Track," placing him in the top 1% of attorneys in his peer group.

Mr. Parks is admitted to practice in Pennsylvania and before its state and federal courts. He also has been admitted specially to handle cases in California, New York, Illinois, Missouri, Delaware, Virginia, New Jersey, and others.