By Mike Scarcella
Aug 5 (Reuters) - Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike has turned to law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan to defend it amid fallout from last month’s global tech outage that crashed millions of computers and disrupted flights, financial services and hospitals.
In a letter to an outside lawyer for Delta Air Lines on Sunday, Quinn Emanuel’s Michael Carlinsky fired back at the U.S. air transport giant’s claim that CrowdStrike should be blamed for the July 19 tech meltdown.
Delta has hired prominent litigator David Boies of Boies Schiller Flexner, known for high-stakes business cases. Delta said last month it planned to take legal action against CrowdStrike after the outage cost the airline $500 million.
Quinn Emanuel, with about 900 lawyers, is among the country's top litigation-focused firms. It counts billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk as a client, and it has long defended Alphabet’s Google in court on some matters.
Quinn Emanuel and Delta had immediate comment, and Boies did immediately respond to a request for comment.
CrowdStrike’s letter to Delta said it was “disappointed” that the airline had suggested CrowdStrike acted inappropriately, and it denied that the company was grossly or committed misconduct.
Carlinsky, based in New York, leads Quinn Emanuel’s complex litigation team. He has represented billionaire investor Leon Black, medical device maker Masimo and bond insurer Ambac Financial Group.
The litigation team for CrowdStrike also includes Quinn appellate partner Ellyde Thompson and intellectual property partner Deepa Acharya, according to a person familiar with the firm's team.
CrowdStrike was hit last week with its first shareholder lawsuit tied to last month's outages. The lawsuit filed in Austin, Texas federal court by the plaintiffs’ firm Labaton Keller Sucharow claimed CrowdStrike’s assurances about its technology were materially false and misleading.
Austin-based CrowdStrike has said the case has merit and the company will "vigorously" defend itself. Defense lawyers have made a court appearance for CrowdStrike in that case.
Read more:
Legal Fee Tracker: Quinn Emanuel fights to keep $185 million award in Obamacare case
Lawyers for Musk's X Corp kicked off data-scraping case
Google slams opposing lawyers’ $217 million fee bid in privacy case
Elon Musk lawyer Spiro avoids sanctions as defamation lawsuit proceeds
(Reporting by Mike Scarcella)