Business Fortune
Recently, Sanford Heisler Sharp, a well-known national civil rights and public interest litigation firm, opened its sixth office countrywide in Silicon Valley. Corporate executives, C-suite officers, entrepreneurs, and high-level talent have been more frequently represented by the firm in the valley and nationwide in high-stakes cases and negotiations pertaining to employment matters, including discrimination, harassment, unequal pay, and retaliation, as well as qui tam securities and financial fraud matters.
Among the company's prior accomplishments are:
- Partner settlements at AmLaw 200 firms totaling seven figures.
- Whistleblowers around the country received settlements of between seven and eight figures.
- Executives in the US received settlements in the seven and eight figures.
- Settlements in the seven figures for physicians and other C-level healthcare workers.
The firm, which is in its third decade, established the Executive Representation Practice Group to cater to this expanding clientele.
Including all of the firm's offices, the new Executive Representation Practice Group operates. The company's main office is in New York City. The other six offices are located in Palo Alto, San Diego, San Francisco, Nashville, Washington, DC, and Baltimore. 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 serves clients nationwide in a variety of industries, including technology, financial services, legal services, media and entertainment, fashion, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, and new economy companies. The group leverages the firm's extensive experience in employment law, government whistleblower programs, compensation and pay equity, public relations, litigation, and dispute resolution. The lawyers at Sanford are aware of the nuances and unique challenges associated with executive representation.
Our firm successfully provides top-notch legal services to individuals in leadership positions in corporations, universities, and ventures around the country, ranging from academics, scientists, and physicians to law partners, public and private corporate executives, and technology leaders and start-up founders. Sanford battles, as it does in every one of its cases, to uphold the rights of its executive clients and to move the legal system closer to justice.
We are aware that legal infractions and discrimination frequently appear differently at the top of a profession than they do at manufacturing facilities, restaurants, retail establishments, or construction sites. David Sanford, co-founder and chairman of the company, stated, "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."
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 company also achieved a $19.5 million settlement on behalf of a class of about 3,400 female employees working in STEM and related positions at Qualcomm. The settlement, which was reached prior to the plaintiffs' lawsuit, mandates that Qualcomm implement extensive programmatic remedies in order to guarantee equal employment opportunities throughout the organization.
High-level executives in a wide range of industries have been represented by the firm in additional cases, which include:
Thomas v. General Electric.
An African American C-suite executive who held the position of President and CEO of General Electric Aviation Materials was the beneficiary of one of the firm's initial cases. Mr. Thomas said that at the top echelons of the GE corporate structures, there was racial discrimination in terms of salary and promotions. After hiring the company, Mr. Thomas's career has continued to flourish because of the favorable outcome our attorneys were able to get for him.
Chen v. InnoGrit Corporation and Zining Wu.
Sanford Heisler Sharp prevailed in an arbitration award of $8.3 million against the Silicon Valley-based semiconductor business InnoGrit, its parent company Shanghai InnoGrit Technologies Co., Ltd., and its CEO Dr. Zining Wu during a 12-day arbitration process. Dr. David Chen, the co-founder and former president of InnoGrit, was unfairly denied his equity stake in the business. The firm defended him against allegations of wrongful termination, retaliation, promissory fraud, and breach of contract.
Burns v. San Diego State University.
In the academic sphere, the firm was able to get a jury verdict of over $3.35 million in favor of Coach Beth Burns against San Diego State University for forcibly removing her from her position as head coach of the SDSU women's basketball team. Coach Burns claimed that the university had terminated her contract as a result of her repeated expressions of concern about gender parity in the school's athletic departments for men and women. The jury trial lasted four weeks, and Sanford Heisler Sharp was able to get a verdict that proved SDSU had fired Coach Burns in retribution for his advocacy, in violation of the California Whistleblower Protection Act.
Urquhart-Bradley v. Cushman & Wakefield.
The business represented a high-achieving Black woman in the C-suite of a multinational commercial real estate conglomerate who had advanced through the ranks to head a revenue-generating division that was functioning exceptionally well. In her case, the plaintiff asserted that her employer simultaneously deployed her to play the role of ambassador for diversity at the corporation while letting an established culture of discrimination against women and people of color remain unchallenged. Despite her objectively excellent performance, the plaintiff claimed that discriminatory barriers to her job advancement were getting in the way. Plaintiff's ability to take a job in her field was hampered by the company's twelve-month non-compete agreement, notwithstanding the company's open admission that her performance was not the reason for her departure.
Plaintiff fought back with the help of her Sanford Heisler Sharp legal team. She filed a lawsuit, was hired as a top executive at a well-known company, and eventually resolved the case by fending off a summary judgment challenge to her discrimination claims.
Sanford Heisler Sharp specializes in managing disputes with judgment and integrity, striving to resolve matters wherever possible to avoid the high economic and human expenses that typically accompany litigation. Even its most successful trial lawyers do not view litigation as a first resort. Before a lawsuit is even filed, the great majority of the cases that its Executive Representation Practice Group handles on behalf of executives, C-suite officers, and elite talent are settled in confidence. Communications remain confidential from the first consultation with attorneys through negotiations and a successful resolution with the client's employer throughout this "pre-suit" process of negotiation, which may include mediation where negotiation at arm's length is facilitated by a third-party neutral.
"The only reason we are successful at settling cases quickly is that prospective defendants are aware of our solid trial and litigation history as well as our readiness to employ cutting-edge legal theories and tactics to advance the rule of law and bring about justice. We have won verdicts in the past in cases that have ranged from modest seven-figure awards to large nine-figure rewards. Additionally, we have negotiated pre-suit settlements worth hundreds of millions of dollars in a range of national businesses," David added.
Sanford Heisler Sharp has been the go-to employee-side company for many CEOs in the financial services, IT, healthcare, and other industries thanks to its combined knowledge and performance. Through its Executive Representation Practice Group, Sanford Heisler Sharp is able to expand its work in this field due to the intuitive and in-depth knowledge of the law and industry practices that influence executives possessed by its attorneys.
