UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS 

EASTERN DIVISION 

IN RE: TIKTOK, INC., ) 

CONSUMER PRIVACY ) MDL No. 2948 

LITIGATION, ) 

 ) Master Docket No. 20 C 4699 

 ) 

 ) Judge John Z. Lee 

 ) 

 ) Magistrate Judge Sunil R. Harjani 

This Document Relates to All Cases ) 

MEGAN JONES’ APPLICATION FOR CO-LEAD COUNSEL; 

NOMINATION OF EKWAN RHOW AS CO-LEAD COUNSEL, 

 DAVID GIVEN, KARA WOLKE AND AMANDA KLEVORN 

TO PLAINTIFFS’ STEERING COMMITTEE, 

AND SHANNON MCNULTY AS PLAINTIFFS’ LIAISON COUNSEL

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This is a complicated case that will require steady, experienced, and collaborative leadership 

– as well as a leader with subject-matter expertise, who will treat all counsel fairly and respectfully, 

and who is committed to the best interests of the class. Moreover, counsel with extensive data 

security, trial, and settlement experience with large corporate entities will be able to assist the class in 

obtaining a fair, reasonable, and adequate resolution. Megan Jones and Hausfeld LLP – along with a 

formidable leadership team -- are best-suited to lead the class. Heralded in court as one of “the 

nation’s best lawyers in an MDL” and a “professional problem solver,” Megan Jones and Hausfeld 

LLP are “best able to represent the interests of the class” under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 

23(g)(2), and should be “[c]harged with formulating (in consultation with other counsel) and 

presenting positions on substantive and procedural issues during the litigation.” MANUAL FOR 

COMPLEX LITIGATION (Fourth) (“MCL”) § 10.221. 

I. MS. JONES HAS COOPERATIVELY LED LARGE, DIVERSE GROUPS OF 

PLAINTIFFS’ FIRMS TO SUCCESSFUL OUTCOMES. 

When it comes to organizing the work of Plaintiffs’ firms, experience matters. Ms. Jones 

lead the work of over eighty plaintiffs’ firms against thirty-five Defendants in one recent class action 

with a massive document production of over fifteen million pages. Despite all of those counsel (and 

their varied opinions), the Court never had to rule upon a single dispute amongst plaintiffs’ counsel 

(in a case that spanned many years). Ms. Jones has repeatedly designed, executed and created 

consensus about litigation strategy in large class action cases, and can bring that same experience to 

bear here. Because the “ability to work cooperatively to create a decision-making framework among 

plaintiffs’ counsel” is “indispensable” for interim lead counsel, Ms. Jones’ cooperative and 

professional approach makes her an appropriate choice to lead this litigation along with Mr. Rhow. 

Deangelis v. Corzine, 286 F.R.D. 220, 225 (S.D.N.Y. 2012). 

This experience is further demonstrated with proactive leadership. With two recent 

Executive Orders threatening access to defendants’ data, the Litigating Firms identified and were the 

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first to raise preservation of evidence required by the class and subclasses to prove their claims. See

Doc. Nos. 5, 11, 11-1, 12, 17. Rather than merely identifying the problem, the Litigating Firms have 

identified, vetted and cleared conflicts with former federal judge Hon. Shira Scheindlin, who has 

expertise in data preservation, to possibly serve as a special master to assist the parties and the 

Court. The Rhow/Jones slate’s ability to identify solutions (for what may become time-sensitive 

problems) will streamline issues1 for this Court’s evaluation and decision. 

Ms. Jones’ experience also has shown that a collaborative approach best serves the class. 

She has seen, time and time again, that including other well-qualified firms adds value for the class. 

Inclusion, not exclusion, serves the interests of the class. No firms will be sidelined if not chosen 

for leadership by this Court. Rather, the Rhow/Jones slate will readily include any plaintiffs’ firm 

that wants to work hard and commit to the case. Additionally, Ms. Jones’ and Mr. Rhow’s 

leadership proposal actually leaves leadership positions open for others, recognizing that the class 

can always be served by additional points of view. Thus, their proposed leadership slate 

demonstrates, rather than discusses, their inclusive approach to leading this complex class action. 

Lastly, the Litigating Firms already have experience collating diverse views in this case. For 

example, we circulated our proposed case schedule to all plaintiffs’ counsel for input. We also drafted a 

proposed list of cases, which we circulated for comment to all. We coordinated input from all sides 

(including defense counsel) and, as a result, this Court does not have dueling sets of papers.2

 This 

1 In one of her cases, Ms. Jones created a novel approach to privilege review in a case where defendants had a 

combined 700,000+ privilege log entries. She suggested, and the Court instituted, a sampling process by which Plaintiffs 

selected samples of privilege log entries for review for each defendant and Special Master issued rulings on those 

samples that were then used to de-designate similar documents on the logs. Through that process, Plaintiffs succeeded in 

de-designating nearly half of the privilege log entries – over 300,000 -- without burdening the court with repetitive and 

lengthy motions to compel. 2 “The just and efficient resolution of this case may depend in large part upon the way the attorneys comport 

themselves and how they overcome conflicts.” ANNOTATED MANUAL FOR COMPLEX LITIGATION §10.23 

(4th ed. 2009), quoting Northern Indiana Public Service Co. v. Certain Underwriters at Lloyd’s London, 1996 WL 

115466 (N.D.Ind. 1996). Of note, the Litigating Plaintiffs compiled and filed the document addressing each of the 

issues set forth in Case Management No. 2. 

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kind of calm, coordinated leadership will continue if the Rhow/Jones slate is selected to represent 

the class. 

II. THE RHOW/JONES LEADERSHIP SLATE COMBINES TRIAL AND 

SETTLEMENT EXPERTISE. 

Rarely have the resources of firms like Hausfeld and Bird Marella been combined to field a 

united, formidable team. The class will benefit from the combined expertise of Mr. Rhow’s trial 

experience, and Ms. Jones’ national reputation for being a skilled negotiator for class action 

settlements. Combining the power of these complimentary skillsets will benefit the class regardless of 

the course of the litigation. 

Using her almost two decades of negotiation experience from being at Hausfeld LLP, Ms. 

Jones is able to craft settlement strategy and terms in even the most difficult cases. She has secured 

final approval from courts for hundreds of millions of dollars for classes of plaintiffs in a variety of 

industries, from rubber chemicals to polyester staple to municipal bonds. Ms. Jones was pleased to 

share her experience on class action settlements in several speaking engagements. See JPML Judges' 

Conference, “MDL Settlements: Common Pitfalls and Helpful Practices,” October 29, 2019. . See also

American Bar Association’s Our Curious Amalgam podcast, “Getting to Yes: The Art and Science of 

Settling Antitrust Class Actions” (February 2020). 

An example of her diverse settlement experience is that in one of her cases, Ms. Jones 

worked with and joined over twenty Select State Attorneys General to jointly co-negotiate, settle, 

and administer a class claim on behalf of certain states as well as the civil litigation class. As Co-Lead 

Counsel, Ms. Jones worked hand in glove with the counsel for multiple Select State Attorneys 

General, was able to generate consensus on a joint settlement strategy for multiple settlement 

agreements, and used that public/private partnership to obtain the maximum results for the class.3

 

3 The American Antitrust Institute recognized this and awarded Ms. Jones’ team the “Outstanding Antitrust 

Litigation Achievement in Private Law Practice” in 2016. 

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Ms. Jones was able to present the result of that joint settlement negotiation to the Court for final 

approval, based on a settlement record that met all factors for approval in that Circuit. This same 

consensus building can be brought to bear here. 

III. HAUSFELD LLP HAS SUBJECT MATTER EXPERTISE. 

From our locations in Boston, Berlin, Brussels, Düsseldorf, London, New York, Paris, 

Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., Hausfeld LLP attorneys have routinely studied 

the global integration of markets and the intersection of global causes of action. Recently, Hausfeld 

obtained a unanimous 9-0 Supreme Court decision in our client’s favor against Chinese producers of 

Vitamin C. See Animal Sci. Prods., Inc. v. Hebei Welcome Pharm. Co., 138 S. Ct. 1865 (2018). We also 

tried to verdict a class action on behalf of purchasers of Korean ramen noodles in the U.S. In re 

Korean Noodles Antitrust Litigation, Case No. 3:13-CV-4115-WHO-DMR (N.D. Cal.). Given the scope 

of our international litigation experience, Hausfeld and its attorneys have participated in foreign 

discovery and are adept at obtaining discovery through the Hague Convention and the Letters 

Rogatory process. We have also been involved in numerous cases involving unique and challenging 

translation issues and taking depositions of entities in foreign language and under local customs and 

practices. 

Further, Hausfeld LLP served as one of the court-appointed Steering Committee Members 

in In re Target Corporation Customer Data Security Breach Litigation, MDL No. 14-2522 (PAM) (D. Minn.). 

After the court granted class certification to a nationwide class of financial institutions, we obtained 

a groundbreaking $60 million settlement that covered class members’ out-of-pocket costs sustained 

as a result of the breach. The settlement, the first of its kind, also required Target to implement 

numerous data security changes going forward. Other Hausfeld LLP experience includes, among 

others: 

• In re Equifax, Inc. Customer Data Security Breach Litigation, 1:17-md-02800 (N.D. Ga.) 

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Hausfeld serves on the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee for the Consumer Track, where over 

145 million U.S. consumers had their personal information compromised as a result of one 

of the largest cyberattacks and data breaches in history. In February of 2018, Chief Judge 

Thrash appointed Hausfeld to serve on the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee for the Consumer 

Track. Hausfeld and the other attorneys for the Consumer Track obtained a settlement 

which establishes a non-reversionary settlement fund of $380.5 million, plus another $125 

million available for out-of-pocket claims, for a total settlement of $505 million. The 

settlement includes at least another $1 billion for improved data security and related 

technology; and as much as $2 billion more, depending on the number of credit monitoring 

claims. Hausfeld and its co-counsel were also successful in obtaining binding commitments 

from Equifax to implement expert-recommended security measures directed at securing 

sensitive information, monitored by an independent third-party and enforceable in Court, 

with Equifax committing to spend $1 billion on data security. 

• In re Premera Blue Cross Customer Data Breach Litigation, 3:15-md-02633 (D. Or.) 

Hausfeld serves on the Plaintiffs’ Executive Leadership Committee representing Premera 

health insurance customers whose confidential medical information was accessed during an 

extended breach. In 2019, the court granted preliminary approval to a $74 million settlement 

which includes a $32 million settlement fund—the total settlement is the largest per capita 

recovery for any medical data breach. The company also agreed to invest at least $42 million 

into bolstering its information security practices over the next three years. 

• First Choice Federal Credit Union v. Wendy’s, 2:16-cv-00506 (W.D. Pa.) 

Hausfeld has served on the Executive Committee in this case. In February 2019, Wendy’s 

agreed to settle the litigation for $50 million, which the Court approved in November 2019. 

In addition to monetary relief to the financial institutions, Wendy's also agreed as part of the 

settlement to put in place reasonable safeguards to manage its data and security risks. 

• In re Marriott International Inc., Customer Data Security Breach Litig., MDL 19-md-2879 (D. Md.) 

In January 2019, Hausfeld filed the first Marriott Data Breach complaint. Hausfeld LLP is 

Co-Lead Counsel (James Pizzirusso) and on the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee (Megan 

Jones). The case is pending. 

This will not be Hausfeld LLP’s first privacy case, nor will it be its first privacy-related class action 

settlement. Such experience can assist the class in obtaining a just resolution of its claims and result 

in a settlement that will be upheld. 

IV. HAUSFELD LLP ATTORNEYS HAVE BEEN TRUSTED TO LEAD 

NUMEROUS CLASS ACTION CASES. 

One of the LawDragon’s 500 Leading Lawyers in America and an inductee to the Legal 500’s 

Hall of Fame4

, Ms. Jones has led numerous class actions including In re Diisocyanates Antitrust 

4 https://www.legal500.com/c/united-states/antitrust/civil-litigationclass-actions-plaintiff/. 

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Litigation, MDL No. 2862 (W.D. Pa.) (J. Ambrose) and In re Marriott International Inc., Customer Data 

Security Breach Litig., No. 19-md-2879 (S.D. Md.) (J. Grimm). In this district, Judge Kendall selected 

Ms. Jones as sole lead counsel from ten applicants in In Re Local Television Advertising Litigation, MDL 

No. 2867 (E.D. Ill.). Assisting Ms. Jones in this case will be her partner, James Pizzirusso, whom 

this Court appointed as Co-Lead Counsel in Greater Chautauqua Federal Credit Union v. Kmart Corp., 

No. 1:15-cv-02228 (N.D. Ill.) (One of three Co- Leads). Recognized by the NATIONAL LAW 

JOURNAL as a “Cybersecurity Trailblazer,” Mr. Pizzirusso was appointed by Judge Gottschal in a 

disputed leadership decision, who noted the “deep experience” at Hausfeld, that they “have 

substantial experience handling class-action litigation,” and that Hausfeld was “better equipped to 

address the complex class-certification issues involved in this litigation.” See In re Honey Transshipping 

Litigation, No. 1:13-cv-02905 (Dkt. 57, Order at *3) (N.D. Ill., August 9, 2013). See also Attachment 

A (personal and firm biographies). 

V. HAUSFELD LLP HAS A LONGSTANDING COMMITMENT TO DIVERSE 

AND INCLUSIVE TEAMS. 

Hausfeld’s lawyers actively promote diversity in the legal community through, among other 

things, Duke Law Judicial Studies Center conferences (including authoring proposed best practices 

for increasing MDL leadership diversity) and the WAPA, which was a conference that Ms. Jones 

created and founded. For over a decade, WAPA has hosted national conferences for women 

plaintiffs’ attorneys to exchange best practices on managing class action litigation, providing 

substantive class action training by women litigators for women litigators.5

 Based on her 

commitment to diversity in the legal profession, Ms. Jones recently joined a presiding judge, 

experienced litigators, and in-house counsel to discuss how to navigate issues in the legal profession 

and help grow the next generation of trial lawyers. See ABA’s “Chair at the Table: Diversity in 

5 In 2016, based in part on this work with WAPA, Ms. Jones attended the White House’s U.S. State of Women 

Summit. 

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Litigation” (March 2020). If appointed, Ms. Jones will continue that commitment and efficiently 

utilize diverse attorneys (from all law firms) to best serve the interests of the class. 

VI. THE PROPOSED PSC FIRMS HAVE DEMONSTRATED PROACTIVE 

LEADERSHIP. 

Hausfeld supports the nomination of Ms. Wolke to oversee offensive discovery (including ediscovery and China-related discovery); Mr. Given to oversee expert work and analysis; and Ms. 

Klevorn would oversee research, pleadings, and motions; and Shannon McNulty as Liaison 

Counsel. Their accomplishments, set forth in their applications, corroborate what has been seen 

here. The Proposed PSC Firms and Ms. McNulty already have been sharing resources, evidence 

and strategy without attribution with one goal in mind: benefitting the class. These firms will form 

a nimble, focused structure that will prosecute this case efficiently and creatively. This Court can 

trust this team to be consistently professional. Selection of this team will ensure best-in-class,

indefatigable and focused leadership. We are well-versed in working together6 to create a unified 

front against defendants, and can be counted on to smooth over any differences amongst plaintiffs. 

VII. CONCLUSION 

Hausfeld LLP and Bird Marella not only each have a long resume of successes, but also have 

the essential day-to-day management skills to most efficiently lead this case. The Proposed PSC 

Firms and Liaison Counsel will provide focused leadership. In short, our firms, if appointed, will: (i) 

work efficiently with a problem-solving, get-the-job-done approach; (ii) involve the Court or Courtappointed special master(s) to resolve disputes only when necessary; and (iii) utilize the deep bench 

of talent from all plaintiffs’ firms to zealously protect the interests of the class. 

6 Public Justice honored Hausfeld and its co-counsel Clifford Law Office with its 2019 Trial Lawyer of the Year 

Award for the legal team’s work on the ground-breaking Hale v. State Farm class action in the United States District Court 

for the Southern District of Illinois. 

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DATED: September 8, 2020 HAUSFELD LLP

By: /s/ Megan E. Jones_______________ 

Megan E. Jones 

HAUSFELD LLP 

600 Montgomery Street, Suite 3200 

San Francisco, CA 94111 

Telephone: (415) 633-1908 

Email: mjones@hausfeld.com 

James J. Pizzirusso 

HAUSFELD LLP 

1700 K Street, NW 

Suite 650 

Washington, DC 20006 

Telephone: (202) 540-7200 

Email: jpizzirusso@hausfeld.com 

MDL Interim Counsel 

Attorneys for Plaintiffs minor P.S., through her legal 

guardian Cherise Slate, and minor M.T.W., through her 

legal guardian, Brenda Washington 

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CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE 

I hereby certify that on September 8, 2020, the foregoing document was filed 

electronically through the Court’s Electronic Case Filing System. Service of this document is 

being made upon all counsel of record in this case by the Notice of Electronic Filing issued 

through the Court’s Electronic Case Filing System on this date. 

/s/ Megan E Jones_____ 

Megan E. Jones 

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