Sanford Heisler Sharp LLP | 20th Anniversary 2004 - 2024
Sanford Heisler Sharp LLP | 20th Anniversary 2004 - 2024

Associate Attorney – Financial Services Litigation

Sanford Heisler Sharp seeks an Associate Attorney for immediate hire with 2 to 5 years of experience in litigation, 1 to 2 years of which may be clerkship experience. Applicants with clerkship experience and/or demonstrated interest in securities and other investments are preferred. The Associate Attorney will report to San Diego Managing Partner Charles Field and can work out of any of the firm’s offices.

From its formation in 2004 to date, Sanford Heisler Sharp has been significantly involved in civil rights, public interest, and employment individual, multi-party, and class action litigation. The firm has served as counsel in numerous class actions around the United States, generating hundreds of millions of dollars in recoveries to class members.

In a recent high-profile case led by San Diego Managing Partner , the court awarded over $20 million for victims of a sex trafficking scheme. Prior to that, was lead trial counsel in a case on behalf of San Diego State University’s female basketball coach, which resulted in the largest Title IX jury verdict in history for a women’s basketball coach. The firm is also responsible for the largest employment discrimination verdict in United States history ($253 million), one of the nation’s largest wage and hour settlements ($99 million), one of the nation’s largest qui tam settlements ($762 million), and one of the largest Title IX settlements ($14 million). For more information about these cases and some of the firm’s other successes, visit www.sanfordheisler.com/verdicts-settlements/.

Sanford Heisler Sharp's Financial Services Litigation Practice Group pursues the firm’s social justice mission by being a disruptive force to those who mismanage the nation’s financial assets. Sanford
Heisler Sharp is at the forefront of driving multi-million-dollar class litigation against some of the largest companies in America for mismanaging billions in retirement plan assets. For its individual clients, the firm
has also secured multiple cash settlements and awards from financial institutions for fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, and elder abuse, including a recent $2.2 million arbitration award.

Sanford Heisler Sharp now aims to devote additional energy and resources to the fight against investor abuse at the hands of the investment industry. The attorney who fills this position will focus primarily on ground-breaking litigation involving financial elder abuse, breach of fiduciary duty, and fraud by financial advisers, securities broker-dealers, and employers.

The attorney who fills this position will also have the opportunity to work with the firm’s world-class team of attorneys across our other offices on its other cutting-edge cases.

Associates are expected to work collaboratively with other attorneys, staff, and clients to develop claims for mediation and litigation. Associates are also expected to conduct factual and legal research; draft legal documents (including pleadings, motions, briefs, legal memoranda, mediation statements, discovery requests and responses, and settlement agreements); participate in discovery; provide legal advice to clients; assist and participate in depositions, mediations, arbitrations, trials, and court hearings and
conferences; and attend industry, networking, and community outreach events. The firm’s Associate Attorneys are given significant responsibility commensurate with their experience, are expected to learn quickly from the firm’s more experienced attorneys and are given as much responsibility as they can handle. Associate Attorneys draft substantive briefs with limited input from senior attorneys, take and defend depositions, argue motions in court, and conduct negotiations with opposing counsel. Attorneys
are required to supervise legal assistants on their cases.

The firm anticipates the attorney will have the opportunity to be involved in arbitrations and trials.

Prospective applicants must be a member in good standing of a state bar or expect to be admitted in the immediate future. Applicants with clerkship experience and/or demonstrated interest in civil rights litigation are preferred. Familiarity with complex civil litigation, class litigation, Title VII, and/or Title IX is a plus.

The position is available now, and is temporarily remote due to COVID-19. Occasional travel may be required in the future. Applicants seeking consideration should email a one-page cover letter, a current résumé, a law school transcript, three references, and a legal writing sample of not less than ten pages to
[email protected]. Please include “2021 Associate Attorney Application – San Diego” in the subject line of the email.

We are committed to EEO principles and value a diverse workplace. We strongly encourage people of color, LGBTQ, all genders, all ages, differently abled, and other minority applicants to apply.

About the Firm

Sanford Heisler Sharp is a boutique class-action litigation law firm with offices in the District of Columbia, New York, California, Tennessee, Georgia, and Maryland.

The team is a tightly knit community of lawyers and legal assistants, all committed to using the law to help craft and enforce a more just society. We specialize in civil rights and general public interest cases, representing plaintiffs with claims of employment discrimination, victims of sexual harassment, sexual assault or criminal violence, labor and wage violations, ERISA violations, and investor fraud, as well as whistleblowers, victims of consumer fraud, and many others seeking to vindicate their rights.

Sanford Heisler Sharp attorneys have served as lead or co-lead counsel in approximately 50 class and collective actions, covering class members in most of the states in the union. These cases have been filed in approximately 20 federal and state jurisdictions across the United States, including New York, California, New Jersey, Illinois, Tennessee, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Alaska, Virginia, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio, Virginia, Kentucky, Georgia, Florida, and the District of Columbia.

We have represented thousands of individuals in some of the most significant class action cases, securing landmark victories through trial and settlements. In addition, the firm has a number of cases currently before federal courts that raise novel issues of law.

Sanford Heisler Sharp and its attorneys have been recognized by the national
press for years:

  • National Law Journal’s Elite Trial Lawyers Hall of Fame;
  • National Trial Lawyers top 100 trial lawyers;
  • American Lawyer Attorney of the Year Finalist;
  • Benchmark Litigation Employment Attorney of the Year;
  • Top Employment Lawyer recognition by American Lawyer, Corporate Counsel, and National Law Journal;
  • Law360 Titan of the Plaintiffs’ Bar and Employment MVP;
  • Law360 Employment Practice Group of the Year;
  • Chambers & Partners Leader in the Field for Labor and Employment;
  • National Law Journal’s Trailblazer Plaintiffs’ Lawyer;
  • National Law Journal’s Litigation Boutique Hot List;
  • Washington Legal Times’ Employment Litigation Department of the Year;
  • Super Lawyers throughout the United States;
  • US News and World Report Best Law Firm; and
  • AV-rated lawyers through Martindale-Hubbell, which is the highest rating given to an attorney by judges and attorneys throughout the United States.

Application Procedure:

Applicants seeking consideration should email a one-page cover letter, a current resume, a law school transcript, three references, and two writing samples of not less than ten pages to [email protected]. Please include “2022 Associate Attorney – Financial Services Litigation” in the subject line of the email.

Qualified applicants are encouraged to submit their application immediately as decisions are made on a rolling basis.

COVID-19:

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Sanford Heisler Sharp has been a firm that has demonstrated flexibility and concern for the well-being of our employees and our communities. We were among the first law firms in the nation to publicly announce that we were moving to a remote work environment and to develop a COVID-19 vaccine policy for employees. The firm will continue to rely on the science to guide its decisions in 2022 and beyond. As of mid-September 2022, employees are required to work from their office two days per week, and any employee may work full-time from their office if they prefer. The firm will continue to regularly assess and adjust its COVID-19 policies and its hybrid work schedule as necessary.

Sanford Heisler Sharp employees must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 (with the exception of Nashville where due to state law vaccines are not mandatory but strongly encouraged for Firm employees), including obtaining the COVID-19 boosters within the time frame recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). If you accept an offer from the firm and choose not to get vaccinated for religious, medical reasons, or other applicable legal requirements, you may seek a reasonable accommodation.

Reasonable Accommodations:

Sanford Heisler Sharp welcomes applications from individuals with disabilities. If you require reasonable accommodations during any part of the hiring process, please send your request to us by email at [email protected] or by mail to the following address:

Sanford Heisler Sharp

700 Pennsylvania Ave SE, Suite 300

Washington, DC 20003