Ekwan E. Rhow

LOS ANGELES - Ekwan E. Rhow has spent the majority of his career in high-stakes national trial practice, covering all aspects of business litigation.

One of his noteworthy victories came in defense of FIGS, Inc. in a nine-figure false advertising trial brought by industry leader Strategic Partners, Inc.

The lawsuit alleged false advertising, unfair competition and interference with prospective economic relations claims against FIGS, Inc. and its co-founders, with claimed damages in excess of $200 million. Strategic Partners, Inc. v. FIGS, Inc. et al., 2:19-cv-02286 (C.D., Cal., filed Mar. 27, 2019).

"It was a high-profile type that garnered a lot of widespread press given the parties involved," Rhow said. "We took the case to a federal jury last November after four years of hard-fought litigation. Fortunately, we were able to win a complete defense verdict."

The case culminated in a three-week jury trial where Rhow was able to deliver his closing, arguing that Strategic Partners, Inc. made "functionally the same" claims it was suing FIGS, Inc. for and that any harm was due to its own failures to enhance its direct-to-consumer capabilities.

The jury delivered a unanimous verdict in favor of FIGS the following day.

Another highly publicized case in which Rhow was appointed by the court co-lead counsel was a national consumer privacy class action filed against the social media platform TikTok Inc., which resulted in one of the largest privacy settlements in history.

A federal judge in Chicago granted Rhow and his co-counsel $30 million in fees and approved a $92 million settlement.

The lawsuit alleged that TikTok Inc. took users' unpublished content without consent or knowledge, stole location data, invaded privacy rights and violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. In Re: TikTok, Inc., Consumer Privacy Litigation, 1:20-cv-04699 (N.D., Ill. filed Aug. 11, 2020).

"We filed this lawsuit before anyone else did and before TikTok was in the national spotlight," Rhow said. "It was subsequent to that when (former President) Trump started to weigh in on the case. Because of his interest, it became an even higher profile case."

In response to the lawsuit, Trump signed an executive order effectively banning the use of TikTok in the United States. The order cited the app as a threat to national security.

"We like being involved in cases we believe in," Rhow said in response to his successful track record. "Because of the nature of our practice, we can get involved in many different types of cases that cover multiple industries."