Jordan Elias

Partner

Jordan Elias is a veteran consumer advocate who has pursued cases against oil and tobacco companies, price-fixing cartels, pharmaceutical companies and the nation’s largest banks. Federal judges have described his advocacy as “very thorough” and “clearly in the public interest.”

Jordan argued the first substantive motion in the digital advertising monopoly litigation against Google. He was the primary author of the plaintiffs’ briefs in the California Supreme Court in the Cipro “pay-for-delay” antitrust case, and led the appeal in In re U.S. Office of Personnel Management Data Security Breach Litigation, 928 F.3d 42 (D.C. Cir. 2019), where the court reversed the dismissal of a case brought on behalf of 22 million federal government employees and job applicants whose sensitive private information was hacked. Jordan also handled the appeals in Pavoni v. Chrysler Group, LLC, 789 F.3d 1095 (9th Cir. 2015) (reversing summary judgment for surviving family members), and Velasquez-Reyes v. Samsung Electronics America, Inc., 777 F. App’x 241 (9th Cir. 2019) (rejecting individual arbitration of false advertising claims even though smartphone packaging had an arbitration clause).

Jordan has been recognized by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America. A former chief arbitrator for the San Francisco Bar Association’s attorney fee disputes program, he received a California Lawyer Attorney of the Year (CLAY) award in 2016 and has been named a Northern California Super Lawyer, Appellate, since 2014.

Jordan’s expertise is not limited to case work. He wrote the Supreme Court chapter, and co-wrote the Ninth Circuit chapter, in the American Bar Association’s authoritative Survey of Federal Class Action Law. For several years he has been responsible for the chapters on antitrust standing, causation, and remedies in California State Antitrust and Unfair Competition Law (Matthew Bender). Jordan also co-wrote the chapter on CAFA exceptions in the 2013 and 2022 editions of The Class Action Fairness Act: Law and Strategy, an ABA book.

Jordan’s law review articles include Course Correction—Data Breach as Invasion of Privacy, 69 Baylor L. Rev. 574 (2018), and The Multistate Problem in Consumer Class Actions and Three Solutions, 17 Harvard Law & Policy Rev. 301 (2023). His recent article on antitrust reform, Antitrust Restoration from California Anchored by a New Monopolization Synthesis, was named one of the 2024 antitrust articles of the year by Concurrences. Jordan has filed friend-of-the-court briefs representing legal scholars, the American Independent Business Alliance and the League of Women Voters. In 2017 he was elected to the American Law Institute.

Jordan began his legal career representing technology firms in securities and intellectual property litigation at Wilson Sonsini, where he received the John Wilson Award for winning asylum for refugees from Haiti and Indonesia. Before joining Girard Sharp Jordan practiced law for seven years at Lieff Cabraser.

A native Californian, Jordan attended Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles. After earning his J.D. from Stanford Law School, where he served on the law review, Jordan clerked for the late Ninth Circuit Judge Cynthia Holcomb Hall. At Yale College he was an all-Ivy League sprinter and received the Field Prize for best dissertation or senior thesis in the humanities.

J.D., Stanford Law School

Member, Stanford Law Review

B.A., magna cum laude, Yale College

Field Prize
White Prize
Phi Beta Kappa

California state courts
Central District of California
Eastern District of California
Northern District of California
District of Colorado
District of Minnesota
U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit

Representative case work

In re Google Digital Advertising Antitrust Litigation
Pioneering suit against Google for acquiring and maintaining an illegal monopoly as default broker for online display ads.

In re PFA Insurance Marketing Litigation
Argued class certification and summary judgment motions in certified class action alleging a pyramid scheme targeting Asian immigrants.

In re MacBook Keyboard Litigation
Argued motion to dismiss in certified class action concerning defective “butterfly” keyboards in several million Apple laptops.

In re J&J Investment Litigation
Investors in a massive Ponzi scheme enabled by Wells Fargo Bank seek to recover their losses.

Stark v. Patreon, Inc.
Argued constitutional question defending federal privacy protection law in action alleging Patreon illegally sends Meta the titles of videos watched by individual subscribers.

Rogers v. Equifax Inc.
Credit reporting agency misrepresented credit scores for millions of Americans, resulting in loan denials and other adverse consequences for borrowers.

Bayati v. GWG Holdings, Inc.
Purchasers of defaulted bonds assert false and misleading statements in violation of the Securities Act.

In re Generic Pharmaceuticals Pricing Antitrust Litigation
Consumers and third-party payors pursue treble damages occasioned by a far-reaching conspiracy to raise and fix generic drug prices.

In re Natera Prenatal Testing Litigation
Prenatal tests falsely report that a fetus has a rare generic syndrome.

Representative briefs (co-authored)

Plaintiffs’ Supplemental Brief, in Sullivan v. DB Investments, Inc., 2011 WL 9522026 (3d Cir.) (en banc).
Brief of Appellee, in Graham v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., 2014 WL 1400433 (11th Cir.).
Brief of Amici Curiae League of Women Voters of Arizona and Phoenix Indian Center, in Mi Familia Vota v. Hobbs, 2020 WL 6120337 (9th Cir.).
Opposition to Motion to Dismiss, in San Miguel v. HP Inc., 2017 WL 2772963 (N.D. Cal.).
Direct Purchaser Plaintiffs’ Opposition to Motion of Defendants Regarding Trial Structure and for Relief to Avoid Duplicative Recovery, in In re TFT-LCD (Flat Panel) Antitrust Litigation, No. 3:07-md-01827-SI (N.D. Cal. Apr. 4, 2012), ECF No. 5400.
Reply Brief on the Merits, in In re Cipro Cases I & II, 2012 WL 4207338 (Cal.).
Opening Brief, in Crawford v. Antonio B. Won Pat International Airport Authority, Guam, 2018 WL 1641099 (9th Cir.).

Member of the American Law Institute (ALI) (since 2017)
Best Lawyers in America (since 2022)
California Lawyer Attorney of the Year (CLAY) Award (2016)
Fellow of the American Bar Foundation (ABF) (since 2020)
Northern California Super Lawyer, Appellate (since 2014)
Lawdragon 500 Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyers (2024)
Contributing Author, California State Antitrust and Unfair Competition Law (since 2012)
Contributing Author and Coordinating Editor, Survey of Federal Class Action Law (since 2017)
Contributing Author, California Class Actions and Coordinated Proceedings (2010‒15)
John Wilson Award (2007)
Member, Stanford Law Review (2002‒03)
Theron Rockwell Field Prize, Yale (1998)
Andrew D. White Prize, Yale (1997)
California Scholar-Athlete of the Year Finalist (1994)

Member, American Law Institute (ALI)
Volunteer, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Election Voter Protection Project
Social Science Research Network (SSRN)
Chair, Antitrust Subcommittee, ABA Section of Class Actions & Derivative Suits
State Bar of California
- Member, Intellectual Property Law Section
- Member, Antitrust, UCL and Privacy Section