Dena Sharp

Dena Sharp is a trial lawyer who focuses on finding common-sense solutions in even the most complex litigation. She recently served as co-lead counsel in the In re Juul Labs Inc. multidistrict litigation, which resulted in recoveries of nearly $2 billion for individual consumers, school districts, municipalities, and Native American tribes. The last of the Juul settlements—for $235 million with Altria (formerly Philip Morris)—was reached after Dena and her co-lead trial counsel rested the plaintiff’s case in a bellwether jury trial against the tobacco giant.

Dena’s leadership in antitrust matters involving prescription drugs like Xyrem and Lidoderm have led to recoveries of hundreds of millions, delivering among the largest recoveries for classes of end-payers in similar federal litigation. Dena also serves as a member of the End-Payer Steering Committee in the massive In re Generic Pharmaceuticals Pricing Antitrust Litigation, and is preparing the first bellwether cases for trial. She represents advertisers in arbitrations against Google concerning its ad tech stack, and serves in leadership positions in various securities, life sciences, and statutory damage matters as well.

Dena tries cutting-edge cases. In a first-of-its-kind jury trial in 2021, Dena and team represented clients whose eggs and embryos were in a freezer tank at a fertility clinic that failed. After a three-week trial, the jury returned a $15 million verdict for the plaintiffs, leading to a global resolution with the tank manufacturer for the dozens of households represented by Girard Sharp.

Outside the courtroom, Dena is an elected member of the American Law Institute, and immediate past chair of the board of directors of the Impact Fund, a public interest nonprofit. She serves on the executive committee of the local chapter of the Federal Bar Association, and sits on the board of advisors of the Center for Litigation and the Courts at the UC College of the Law, San Francisco. Dena routinely comments and writes on the civil rule making process and complex case management issues. She co-wrote 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 is the immediate past co-chair of the Northern District of California’s Lawyer Representatives to the Ninth Circuit Judicial Council.

Dena has twice been recognized as the “Lawyer of the Year” in San Francisco for Plaintiffs’ Mass Tort / Class Action Litigation by Best Lawyers in America (in 2023 and 2024), and was selected as a “Titan of the Plaintiffs’ Bar” by Law360 in April 2023. She recently received the prestigious “California Lawyer Attorney of the Year” (CLAY) Award for the JUUL litigation, recognizing its major impact on society and the law. Dena has three times been named to the National Law Journal’s “Elite Women 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.” The Daily Journal has also recognized her as one of the “Top Antitrust Lawyers in California” and “Top Women Lawyers” in California. In 2023, Dena was selected as one of the Top 100 Super Lawyers in Northern California, and since 2020 she has been recognized by San Francisco magazine as one of the “Top 50 Women Attorneys in Northern California.”

Dena is a graduate, cum laude, of the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco, and earned her undergraduate degree from Brown University, where she graduated magna cum laude. A first-generation American, Dena is fluent in Spanish and German.