Dena Sharp 

Dena Sharp practices plaintiff-side complex litigation as a name partner at Girard Sharp LLP. She and firm founder Daniel C. Girard focus on cases involving antitrust and consumer protection claims, women’s advocacy and sexual abuse issues and finance and investment matters.

She joined in 2006, straight out of UC College of the Law, San Francisco, where she earned her JD cum laude. “I’m a one-firm woman,” she said. Her name went on the door in 2018.

“Early on, I had a good idea of what I didn’t want to do, which is represent insurance companies and banks. They seemed to have enough lawyers. But the kind of plaintiff work I was drawn to wasn’t much on offer back then. Then someone suggested I talk to Dan Girard, and that was that. I couldn’t believe this was an available lane.”

She was recognized as the 2023 “Lawyer of the Year” in San Francisco in the mass tort litigation/class action-plaintiffs category by Best Lawyers in America.

In May 2023, as interim co-lead counsel for purchasers of the narcolepsy medication Xyrem, Sharp and colleagues attained class certification in a suit focused on the alleged suppression of lower-priced genetic alternatives. In re Xyrem (Sodium Oxybate) Antitrust Litigation, 3:20-md-02966 (N.D. Cal., filed Dec. 16, 2020).

“It’s a pay-for-delay case,” she said, referring to claims that Xyrem’s maker, Jazz Pharmaceuticals, conspired with generic challengers to slow their marketing of a rival medication. “Class certification is a big development for us. This is a blockbuster drug and Jazz wanted to hold onto its monopoly. Now we’re turning our sights on trial preparation.”

“It was an eventful May,” she added, noting that last month, she and her colleagues had settled with Altria Group, Inc. for $235 million in the nationwide Juul e-cigarette vaping case. Sharp is co-lead counsel. The settlement amount reached in December 2022 with the other defendants remains confidential, but media reports put it at $1.7 billion.

“We put on our case in a bellwether trial against Altria. When we rested, they settled without putting on their case. It was a dramatic conclusion. One of our clients is SF Unified [School District], where I’m a proud parent.” In Re: Juul Labs Inc., Marketing, Sales Practices, and Products Liability Litigation, 3:19-md-02913 (N.D. Cal., filed Oct. 2, 2019).

Beyond her day job, Sharp chairs the board of directors of Impact Fund, a public interest nonprofit based in Berkeley. “Working with justice organizations like that is an important part of what I do,” she said.

— John Roemer