Firm overview
Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight is a nationwide, plaintiffs-side law firm that was founded in 2004 by David Sanford and Jeremy Heisler to litigate public interest and social justice cases that make a significant difference in society. In 2017, Kevin Sharp, a former Chief Judge of the United States District for the Middle District of Tennessee, joined the firm as its third named partner. In 2024, H. Vincent McKnight Jr., Co-Chair of the firm’s Whistleblower and Qui Tam Practice Group, became a fourth named partner.
David Sanford has served as lead counsel in more than 50 class actions and numerous significant qui tam fraud cases; he has represented over 100 general counsel, in-house counsel, and lawyers in claims against their law firms and companies. Over the course of his 42-year legal career, Jeremy Heisler has achieved notable success in employment, civil rights, and consumer class actions and complex multiparty and multistate litigation, producing hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements to class members and individuals. Judge Sharp has nearly 30 years of experience litigating and/or presiding over complex civil litigation cases, qui tam and whistleblower matters, products liability claims, malpractice cases, class action matters, ERISA claims, and civil rights matters. H. Vincent McKnight Jr. is a leading voice on whistleblower law who has generated approximately $5 billion for the U.S. government and clients during the past ten years.
The firm has offices in New York, Washington, D.C., Palo Alto, San Francisco, San Diego, and Nashville. The firm has recovered over a billion dollars for its clients, and continues to move the needle in high-profile, precedent-setting litigation not only by winning significant compensation, but also through achieving real change in companies and institutions to create a more equitable environment and enlightened management policies.
The firm is committed to helping and giving a voice to disadvantaged groups and individuals, assisting whistleblowers litigate their claims, representing employees seeking relief from employers’ retirement fund mismanagement and abuses, and advocating for employees and executives in a wide range of employment disputes, including severance negotiations, wrongful termination, retaliation, wage and hour violations, sexual harassment, and gender, sexual orientation, race, national origin, and disability discrimination. The firm also promotes social and economic change by increasing media awareness and stimulating public dialogue.
The firm’s lawyers are successful in protecting plaintiffs’ rights in federal and state courts, in settlement negotiations, and in arbitrations nationwide. The firm has forged ahead, often against the odds, and achieved success against major technology firms, including Oracle, Western Digital, and Alaska Communication Systems; pharmaceutical giants like Merck, Novartis, Sanofi, and others; premier law firms in the United States such as Chadbourne & Parke (now Norton Rose Fulbright), Sedgwick, Morrison & Foerster, and Proskauer Rose; and top universities, including Dartmouth College, Columbia University, New York University, and the University of Arizona. The firm has waged and won lawsuits that have protected thousands of employees’ rights to have their 401(k) retirement plans appropriately managed as required by the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”).
The firm excels at holding institutions accountable when they cause harm, consistently advocating for victims of discrimination, harassment, and sexual assault, including employees at Fortune 500 companies, attorneys in Big Law, and university faculty and students, and routinely pursues cases against institutions such as schools, daycares, and religious institutions that fail to keep children safe from sexual abuse.
Most firms would shy away from challenging the most powerful interests in society. Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight has taken on the largest corporations in the world and has succeeded.
Among the Firm’s Notable Successes.
In re: GE ERISA: In 2024, the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts granted final approval of a $61 million settlement of a nationwide class action lawsuit against General Electric (“GE”). Our firm originated the lawsuit, filed under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) in 2017, alleging that GE failed to offer any alternative investments to its own proprietary, under-performing mutual funds in its employee 401(k) plan. Our firm regularly represents employees invested in 401(k) plans against their employers for alleged breaches of ERISA, including by allowing investment advisors to charge plans unreasonable fees and for failing to monitor and remove poorly performing investment options.
Crime Victims’ Rights Appeal: On August 30, 2024, the Maryland Supreme Court ordered the Baltimore City Circuit Court to conduct a new hearing to determine whether Adnan Syed’s 1999 conviction for the murder of Hae Min Lee, the subject of the podcast “Serial,” should be vacated. Our appeal on behalf of Ms. Lee’s brother, Young Lee, argued that the Circuit Court violated Mr. Lee’s constitutional and statutory rights as a crime victim’s representative in 2022 by failing to give Mr. Lee adequate notice to appear, hear the evidence overturning Mr. Syed’s conviction, and comment meaningfully on whatever evidence the state could produce in support of vacating Mr. Syed’s conviction.
Robinson v. De Niro and Canal Productions: In 2023, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, a jury found Canal Productions liable for gender discrimination and retaliation and awarded our client, Graham Chase Robinson, $1.2 million. Ms. Robinson was Robert De Niro’s former longtime executive assistant. The jury also rejected Canal’s counter-claims of conversion, breach of fiduciary duty, and breach of the duty of loyalty.
Military Sexual Assault: The firm is representing 18 John Doe plaintiffs in Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) administrative complaints against the U.S. Department of the Army and the U.S. Department of Defense (collectively, “the Army”). The FTCA complaints seek to hold the Army responsible for failing to protect the plaintiffs from being sexually abused by an Army doctor who has been criminally charged for the sexual abuse of numerous soldiers and veterans in his care at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Tacoma, Washington.
Whistleblower/Qui Tam: In 2023, our firm and the U.S. government settled a whistleblower action under the False Claims Act (FCA) with International Vitamin Corporation (“IVC”), a leading importer of dietary supplements. As part of the settlement, IVC agreed to pay the U.S. government $22.865 million to resolve claims that it systematically skirted customs duties on thousands of imports of nutritional supplements from China between 2015 and 2019 by fraudulently reporting incorrect tariff classifications and duty rates on the imports. The Complaint also alleged that IVC knew that it had evaded more than $10 million in duties but failed to inform the government and pay the duties as required under applicable law.
United States Marshals Service: In 2024, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) granted final approval of a $15 million settlement in a nearly 30-year-long race discrimination class action alleging that the United States Marshals Service (“USMS”) discriminated against African Americans in its promotions, recruitment, and hiring policies for Deputy U.S. Marshals positions. As part of the settlement, the USMS agreed to institute significant programmatic reforms to its hiring practices.
Updated Oct 2024
