Dena C. Sharp

Sharp regularly assumes leadership roles representing consumers in a wide variety of class actions and other multiple-plaintiff cases. Current matters include ones alleging gasoline price-fixing, suppression of generic drugs, marketing tobacco products to children and ruining frozen embryos.

In that last case, her win against a defense summary judgment motion in March means Sharp is set to start a bellwether trial for five plaintiffs on May 20, in person. Pacific Fertility Center Litigation, 3:18-cv-01586 (N.D. Cal., filed March 13, 2018)

She is co-lead counsel suing the maker of a cryopreservation tank on behalf of hundreds of women whose frozen eggs and embryos were lost when one of the company’s tanks failed. About as many claims against the San Francisco fertility clinic are in arbitration.

Sharp and co-counsel also scored a win recently in ongoing multidistrict litigation alleging that JUUL Labs Inc. intentionally marketed its tobacco vaping products to teenagers while downplaying the dangers of nicotine. In re: Juul Labs Inc. Marketing, Sales Practices, and Products Liability Litigation, 3:19-md-02913 (N.D. Cal., filed Oct. 2, 2019).

In April, a federal judge declined to throw out the racketeering cause of action. It describes JUUL as a corrupt enterprise run by company officials and investors, including Altria Group Inc. “It’s a unique but we think very robust RICO claim,” Sharp said.

She also is co-lead counsel in a proposed class action charging a Dutch company and a South Korean company with running up gas prices at the pump by manipulating prices on California’s gasoline spot market following a Los Angeles-area refinery explosion in 2015. California Gasoline Spot Market Antitrust Litigation, 3:20-cv-03148 (N.D. Cal., filed May 6, 2020).

Sharp describes an older antitrust case as “near and dear to my heart.” It accuses pharmaceutical giant Allergan of engaging in a broad campaign to keep generic versions of its dry-eye medication, Restasis, off the market long after its patent expired. As co-lead counsel, she has summary judgment motions pending and is readying for trial. Restasis Antitrust Litigation, 1:18-md-02819 (E.D. N.Y., filed Jan. 31, 2018)

But generic prices can be manipulated, too. Sharp serves on a steering committee in a massive price-fixing case against some three dozen drug companies for boosting prices on certain generic by as much as 1,000%, she said. “That case is fascinating and notable by virtue of its size and the scale of the conspiracy.” Generic Pharmaceuticals Pricing Antitrust Litigation, 2:16-md-02724 (E.D. Pa., filed Aug. 5, 2016).

— Don DeBenedictis