About Whitty

Whitty Somvichian's practice consists of representing clients in complex commercial litigation with a focus on class action matters involving technology, e-commerce, and privacy issues.

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Experience

  • Defeated Class Certification in Gmail Class Actions With Potential of Damages in the Billions

    • Defeated Class Certification in Gmail Class Actions With Potential of Damages in the Billions

    May 3, 2016

    Defended Google in several class actions around the country arising from the automated scanning of email messages in Google's Gmail service. The cases involve novel issues arising from the intersection of modern email technology and the federal and state wiretapping statutes, and the classes proposed in these cases would be among the largest ever, implicating billions of emails exchanged with over 400 million Gmail users. We successfully defeated class certification in all of these cases, leading to settlements in the federal and California actions. We then obtained summary judgment on behalf of Google in the remaining Massachusetts action.

    Related contacts

    Whitty Somvichian
    Partner, San Francisco
    Kyle Wong
    Partner, San Francisco

    Related Practices & Industries

    Class Action Litigation

Admissions and credentials

  • California

Rankings and accolades

Chambers USA: Litigation: General Commercial – California (2022 – 2025)

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