Sarah R. London

London is a national advocate for the injured—particularly women and young people—in impact cases across the U.S. focused on personal injury, mass torts and class actions.

She is representing families whose frozen eggs and embryos were destroyed by a cryogenic tank failure, teens suffering serious injuries from e-cigarettes and victims injured by outdated pharmaceuticals as well as entire communities devastated by poisoned water.

When a tank failed at a San Francisco fertility clinic in March 2018, ruining some of its contents, London found she knew some of the women whose frozen eggs and embryos were stored there. “This was a local disaster that affected friends of mine,” she said. She represents parents whose genetic material was lost. R.M. v. Pacific Fertility Center, CGC-18-565458 (S.F. Super. Ct., filed April 3, 2018).

The trial court rejected the defendants’ bid to move the matter to arbitration.

She’s in federal court representing plaintiffs as co-lead counsel in nationwide multidistrict litigation over e-cigarettes. Her clients include a young man who suffered a stroke as a result of his addiction to vaped tobacco. In re: Juul Labs. Inc., Marketing, Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation, 3:19-md-02913 (N.D. Cal., filed Oct. 2, 2019).

“There are consolidated personal injury claims, government entity nuisance actions and a consumer class with allegations over the targeting of youth,” London said. “The vast majority of the evidence and harms overlap.” The plaintiffs have expanded their complaint to include the tobacco giant Altria Group Inc. and several of its directors and investors who have a 35 percent stake in Juul. “Several of the directors and investors were very hands-on in what we claim was a massive fraud to bring non-smokers into using the product,” she said. An initial trial in the case is set for February 2021.

In September 2019, London was appointed subclass settlement counsel in the class action over lead exposure in Flint, Michigan. The decision to switch the municipal water supply to the highly contaminated Flint River led to permanent harm by lead poisoning for almost 8,000 children. In re: Flint Water Cases, 5:16-cv-10444 (E.D. Mich., filed Feb. 8, 2016).

The parties reached a settlement that exceeds $600 million. “We’re in the claims notice phase,” London said. “The majority of the funds will go to young people who were damaged.”

— John Roemer