Sarah R. London

Litigation

San Francisco

Sarah R. London is a prominent litigator who joined Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP in 2009 straight out of law school and has worked on some of its most successful cases.

Her work focuses on the injured -- particularly women and young people -- including victims of the e-cigarette epidemic and those who were harmed when they sought fertility treatment. London heads Lieff Cabraser's fertility practice.

"I knew advocacy was my calling since the fifth grade," she said. That was when her male teacher ruled that girls couldn't play eraser tag because he thought the game went better when it was boys-only. "I organized a walkout to protest, and we got the rule changed," London said. "Anyone who met me from then on probably thought I was going to be a lawyer."

Before law school she served as public policy manager and lobbyist at Planned Parenthood of Kansas. She also worked as a union organizer.

"In those jobs, I kept confronting the language of the law, and I realized that it is the language of power," she said, explaining why law school was her next logical step. "I was lucky enough to get a summer internship at Lieff Cabraser, and I've been here ever since."

In December 2023, London and co-lead counsel persuaded a federal judge to grant up to $150 million in fees for having prevailed with nearly $2 billion in settlements in the massive multidistrict litigation against Juul Labs Inc. over the addictive properties of its vaping products. In re: Juul Labs Inc. Marketing, Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation, 3:19-md-02913 (N.D. Cal., filed Oct. 2, 2019).

The fee hearing included an unusual colloquy in which Senior U.S. District Judge William H. Orrick of San Francisco discussed the result of his order early in the litigation that plaintiff counsel provides him a confidential demographic report on the roles the lawyers played and identifying their race, sexual orientation and years of practice. The goal was to promote diversity in multi-district litigation.

London said she enthusiastically agreed. "The judge asked that we share our data with academics and others studying this issue. And all of us working on the case have been asked to speak at various gatherings about what we learned from the data we gathered."

"Judge Orrick is committed to fairness and diversity in the system, and it is in alignment with so many of the things I value. This will be foundational for spreading these ideas to interested courts."

In a new matter, London represents about 35 clients across the U.S. who are suing a fertility company accused of implanting faulty embryos in thousands of patients. E.F. et al. v. CooperSurgical Inc. et al., 4:24-cv-00643 (N.D. Cal., filed Feb. 2, 2024).

She's hoping to resolve the case speedily. "In any fertility case, time is of the essence," she said. "The biological clock is very unforgiving."

-- John Roemer