Dena Sharp

Dena Sharp is a problem solver who gets results for her clients in even the most complex litigation. She serves as co-lead counsel in the In re Juul Labs Inc. multidistrict litigation, In re Xyrem Antitrust Litigation, and In re California Gasoline Spot Market Antitrust Litigation. She also serves as a member of the End-Payer Steering Committee in In re Generic Pharmaceuticals Pricing Antitrust Litigation, a massive case alleging that the world’s largest makers of generic drugs conspired to raise prices and prevent price competition for years. Dena is also privileged to represent clients of a fertility center whose eggs and embryos were compromised by a freezer tank malfunction. In June 2021, Dena and her team tried the first In re Pacific Fertility Center Litigation case in federal court in San Francisco, and won a groundbreaking $15 million jury verdict for the loss of four families’ eggs and embryos.

As co-lead counsel in In re Lidoderm Antitrust Litigation, a “pay-for delay” antitrust case that settled for $104.75 million on the eve of trial, Dena worked with her team to win class certification, defeat summary judgment, and obtain the largest recovery for a class of end-payers in similar federal litigation in more than a decade. She has also played a key role in a variety of other high-profile cases, including work on behalf of the direct purchasers in the In re Capacitors Antitrust Litigation, and representing investors in litigation arising from Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy and in matters involving Ponzi schemes and accounting fraud.

Outside the courtroom, Dena is the current chair of the Impact Fund, a public interest nonprofit, and has served as co-chair and faculty member of the annual Judicial Training Symposium for Federal Judges, hosted by the Federal Judicial Center and the Electronic Discovery Institute. She was elected to the American Law Institute in 2018, and sits on the board of advisors for the Center for Litigation and the Courts at the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco. Dena co-authored a chapter in the ABA’s “Class Action Strategy and Practice Guide,” and the widely-cited Sedona Principles: Best Practices and Principles for Electronic Document Production (Third Edition). She previously served as co-chair of the Northern District of California’s lawyer representative committee, and is currently an executive committee member in the Federal Bar Association’s local chapter.

Dena was recognized by Best Lawyers in America as the 2023 “Lawyer of the Year” in San Francisco for Plaintiffs’ Mass Tort / Class Action Litigation. The National Law Journal has twice recognized Dena as an “Elite Woman of the Plaintiffs’ Bar,” honoring her as one of only a handful of lawyers nationwide who has “consistently excelled in high-stakes matters on behalf of plaintiffs” over the course of her career. She was named one of the “Top 50 Women Attorneys in Northern California” by San Francisco magazine in 2021, and one of the “Top Antitrust Lawyers in California” and “Top Women Lawyers” in 2021 by the Daily Journal. Dena has also been recognized as a Northern California Super Lawyer or Rising Star every year since 2009, and has been named one of the “Top 50 Women Lawyers in Northern California” by Super Lawyers since 2020. In 2022, Dena was named one of the Top 100 Super Lawyers in Northern California.

Dena is a graduate, cum laude, of the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco, where she was a member of the Thurston Society and received the Best Oral Advocate and Witkin awards. She graduated magna cum laude from Brown University. During law school, Dena externed for the Honorable Phyllis J. Hamilton of the Northern District of California, and the Honorable John E. Munter of the San Francisco Superior Court. A first-generation American, Dena is fluent in Spanish and German.