Dena C Sharp

Dena’s work encompasses a diverse range of practice areas in complex litigation, including antitrust, consumer protection, finance, investments, IVF, and sexual abuse and women’s advocacy.

Dena Sharp is dedicated to 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 currently serves as co-lead counsel in In re Xyrem Antitrust Litigation and In re Google Digital Advertising Antitrust Litigation, as well as in leadership positions in various life sciences and statutory damage matters. She also serves as a member of the End-Payer Steering Committee in the massive In re Generic Pharmaceuticals Pricing Antitrust Litigation. Dena previously led a team to a $104.75 million recovery on the eve of trial in a certified “pay-for-delay” antitrust class action concerning the drug Lidoderm, which delivered the largest recovery for a class of end-payers in similar federal litigation in more than decade.

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 chairs the board of directors of the Impact Fund, a public interest nonprofit. She is an elected member of the American Law Institute, sits on the board of advisors for the Center for Litigation and the Courts at the UC College of the Law, San Francisco, and serves on the executive committee of the local chapter of the Federal Bar Association. She is the immediate past co-chair for the Northern District of California’s Lawyer Representatives to the Ninth Circuit Judicial Council.

Dena 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).