Michael G. Rhodes

Although Rhodes has been practicing with the same firm for 30 years, he’s still inspired by being at the vanguard of his clients’ innovation.

One such client he’s currently defending in a series of class actions is Niantic Inc., which operates the Pokémon GO app. That app, a pop culture phenomenon in 2016, created an immediate frenzy.

Within short order, Niantic was hit with a series of class actions involving a novel question: Is Niantic, as the operator of Pokémon GO, liable for creating a virtual trespass or a virtual nuisance if people congregate on or near someone’s property? In re Pokemon Go Nuisance Litigation, 16-CV4300 (N.D. Cal., filed July 29, 2016).

“If I place GPS coordinates associated with your property, either ‘on’ it, and I put the word ‘on’ in quotation marks because these are augmented realities, there’s really nothing ‘on’ anything,” Rhodes said. “It’s just a coordinate such that, if you go to that coordinate and have a phone, or are looking at your screen, you will see something.”

In other words, “if I associate GPS coordinates with your property, and people go there to engage with the augmented reality experience — which in this case it’s a game — and they go on your property, is that a trespass?” he said.

Over the next couple of months, Rhodes anticipates hearings on motions to dismiss the complaint.

Taking on big clients such as Niantic requires maintaining a strong team.

“The fundamental ethic that I try to instill on the teams that I lead is that we are all equally important to the cause of the client, and that it’s the client’s cause that we’re actually about,” he said.

A lifelong surfer, he considered studying Mesoamerican archaeology early on in life. Eventually he pivoted toward law. Then, as a third-year law student, Rhodes’ found himself externing for U.S. District Judge Robert Takasugi in Los Angeles. Within a week, Rhodes had a front-and-center seat at the famous DeLorean cocaine conspiracy case.

“And so I sat there and watched this trial as a third-year law student and the lawyers were pretty amazing … and I just thought, ‘This is what I want to be doing.’”

— David Mendenhall