Banking on its remarkably talented team, Sanford Heisler Sharp, a highly-recognized public interest & civil rights law firm, continues to ascend in prominence

In 2010, the firm secured what remains the largest jury verdict in U.S. history in an employment gender discrimination case—$253 million for some 7,000 female sales representatives of the pharmaceutical giant Novartis for gender discrimination in pay, promotions, and pregnancy.

Sanford Heisler Sharp, a nationally recognized civil rights and public interest law firm, recently opened an office in Silicon Valley—now its seventh office nationwide. In the Valley and across the country, the firm has increasingly represented corporate executives, C-suite officers, entrepreneurs and high-level talent in high-stakes cases and negotiations in employment matters, including discrimination, harassment, unequal pay, and retaliation, as well as whistleblower and qui tam securities, and financial fraud matters.

Some of the firm’s past successes include:

• Seven-figure settlements for partners at AmLaw 200 firms.
• Seven- and eight-figure settlements for whistleblowers across the United States.
• Seven- and eight-figure settlements for executives in the United States.
• Seven-figure settlements for doctors and C-level healthcare professionals.

Now in its third decade, the firm has formed a new practice group to serve this growing client base, the Executive Representation Practice Group.

The new Executive Representation Practice Group spans all offices across the firm. The firm is headquartered in New York City. The additional six offices are in Palo Alto, San Francisco, Washington, DC, Baltimore, Nashville, and San Diego. The Practice Group Co-Chairs are David Sanford (New York/ San Diego), Russell Kornblith (New York), Kate Mueting (Washington, D.C.), and Janette Wipper (Palo Alto/ San Francisco).

The Executive Representation Practice Group draws from the firm’s deep expertise in employment law, government whistleblower programs, compensation and pay equity, public relations, litigation, and dispute resolution to service clients around the country in an array of industries, including technology, financial services, legal services, media and entertainment, fashion, healthcare, pharmaceutical, telecommunications, and new economy companies.

The Sanford attorneys understand the subtleties and particular complexities of executive representation. From public and private corporate executives to law partners, from academics, scientists, and physicians, to technology leaders and start-up founders, the firm continues to successfully deliver high caliber legal services to those in leadership at corporations, institutions and ventures nationwide. As in all of its cases, Sanford fights to protect the rights of its executive clients and to bring the law closer toward justice.

“We know that discrimination and other violations of the law often look different at the highest levels of the profession than they do at construction sites, restaurants, stores, or factories. But we also know that racism, sexism, age and disability discrimination, retaliation, and other forms of unlawful conduct remain prevalent in board rooms, C-suites, and the other rarified settings where corporate and organizational leadership work is done,” said David Sanford, co-founder and Chairman of the firm.

Sanford Heisler Sharp has built a compelling track record representing individuals and plaintiff classes in high-profile, high-impact public interest cases. In 2010, the firm secured what remains the largest jury verdict in U.S. history in an employment gender discrimination case—$253 million for some 7,000 female sales representatives of the pharmaceutical giant Novartis for gender discrimination in pay, promotions, and pregnancy.

The firm’s qui tam/whistleblower practice, representing a former employee of the California-based biotech firm Amgen, collaborated with the U.S. Department of Justice in winning a $762 million global settlement over Amgen’s fraudulent sales practices.

The firm also secured a $19.5 million settlement on behalf of a class of approximately 3,400 female employees working in STEM and related positions at Qualcomm. The settlement was reached before plaintiffs filed suit, and requires Qualcomm to institute comprehensive programmatic relief to ensure equal job opportunities at the company.

Other cases where the firm has represented high-level executives in a varied and broad range of industries include:

Thomas v. General Electric.  One of the firm’s first cases was brought on behalf of an African American C-suite executive, who served as the President and CEO of General Electric Aviation Materials. Mr. Thomas alleged racial discrimination in pay and promotions at the highest levels of the GE corporate structures. After retaining the firm, our attorneys achieved a successful result for Mr. Thomas, who has continued to excel in his career.

Chen v. InnoGrit Corporation and Zining Wu. After a 12-day arbitration hearing, Sanford Heisler Sharp won an arbitration award of $8.3 million against InnoGrit, a Silicon Valley-based semiconductor company, its parent company Shanghai InnoGrit Technologies Co., Ltd., and its CEO Dr. Zining Wu. The firm represented Dr. David Chen, the co-founder and former President of InnoGrit, who was wrongfully denied his equity stake in the company and asserted claims of breach of contract, promissory fraud, retaliation, and wrongful termination.  

Burns v. San Diego State University. In academia, the firm secured an approximately $3.35 million jury verdict for Coach Beth Burns against San Diego State University for unlawfully terminating her as Head Coach of the SDSU Women’s Basketball team. Coach Burns alleged that the University terminated her contract because she repeatedly voiced concerns relating to gender equity between the institution’s male and female athletic programs. After a four-week jury trial, Sanford Heisler Sharp secured a verdict confirming that SDSU violated the California Whistleblower Protection Act by terminating Coach Burns in retaliation for this advocacy.

Urquhart-Bradley v. Cushman & Wakefield. In the C-suite, the firm represented a Black woman at the top of her career, promoted through the ranks to lead a top-performing revenue-generating division at a global commercial real estate behemoth. In her complaint, the Plaintiff alleged that her employer simultaneously deployed her to play the role of ambassador for diversity at the company, while permitting an entrenched culture of discrimination against women and people of color to continue unchecked. Plaintiff alleged that her career advancement repeatedly faced discriminatory roadblocks despite her objectively outstanding performance. While publicly admitting that her performance was not the cause of her departure, the company held plaintiff to a twelve-month non-compete agreement, thereby hampering her ability to take another position in her industry. With the support of her legal team at Sanford Heisler Sharp, Plaintiff fought back – filing a lawsuit, landing another top executive position at a nationally-known company, and ultimately resolving the matter after fighting off a summary judgment challenge to her discrimination claims. 

Even its most effective trial lawyers do not treat litigation as a first resort. Sanford Heisler Sharp excels at handling claims with discretion and integrity. The vast majority of the matters our Executive Representation Practice Group handles for C-suite officers, executives and high-level talent are settled confidentially, before a lawsuit is even filed.

Throughout this “pre-suit” process of negotiation, sometimes including mediation where negotiation at arm’s length is facilitated by a third-party neutral, communications remain confidential, from the initial consultation with attorneys through negotiations and a successful resolution with the client’s employer.

“We are effective at resolving matters early only because potential defendants know our strong track record in litigation and trial, and our willingness to use cutting-edge legal theories and strategies to push the law itself closer toward justice. Our past litigation successes include verdicts ranging from low seven-figure awards up to nine-figure awards. We have also negotiated hundreds of millions of dollars in pre-suit settlements in a variety of industries across the country,” said David.

With its collective expertise and results, Sanford Heisler Sharp has become many executives’ go-to employee-side firm, not only in the financial services industry, but also in tech, healthcare and other industries. Thanks to our attorneys’ deep and intuitive understanding of the law and industry practice affecting executives, Sanford Heisler Sharp continues to increase its work in this area through its Executive Representation Practice Group.

“Our past litigation successes include verdicts ranging from low seven-figure awards up to nine-figure awards. We have also negotiated hundreds of millions of dollars in pre-suit settlements in a variety of industries across the country.”