Posted January 4th, 2018.

Jeremy Heisler Named Vice-Chairman of the FirmRussell Kornblith Named Partner and New York Managing Partner Ali Harwin Named Partner and Co-Chair of National Title VII PracticeKate Mueting Named Co-Chair of National Title VII Practice

(January 4, 2018, New York) – Sanford Heisler Sharp today announced promotions and new leadership roles for many of the firm’s lawyers across its U.S platform.

“These personnel changes reflect the exceptional performance of our lawyers and their commitment both to our clients and to our firm,” said David Sanford, the firm’s Chairman. “We consistently attract lawyers from the top-ranked law schools in the country and provide them with an unparalleled opportunity to excel at the highest levels of the profession.  These are very talented lawyers and we are delighted to see them advance at Sanford Heisler Sharp.”

Sanford Heisler Sharp promoted:Jeremy Heisler to Vice-Chairman of the nationwide firm;

Russell Kornblith from Senior Litigation Counsel to Partner and Managing Partner of the firm’s New York office;

Ali Harwin from Senior Litigation Counsel to Partner and co-chair of the national Title VII Practice.  Ms. Harwin will co-chair the Title VII practice with partner Kate Mueting in Washington, DC

• Mr. Heisler, a founding partner, is involved in most of the firm’s litigation matters with a special focus on the firm’s cases reaching appellate courts.
• Russell Kornblith, Harvard Law School ‘12, will lead the firm’s New York office.  Mr. Kornblith represents nearly 700 opt-in Plaintiffs in Kelli Smith et al. v. Merck & Co., Inc., et al, a major gender discrimination class action where a collective action was conditionally certified in April 2016. Rule 23 class certification briefing is currently pending. In United States ex rel. Nargol & Langton v. DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc., Mr. Kornblith successfully argued an appeal obtaining reversal of a district court’s decision dismissing the Relators’ case. The qui tam matter is one of the first to successfully allege false claims based on manufacturing defects in a medical device.
• Alexandra Harwin, Yale Law School ‘11, will co-chair Sanford Heisler Sharp's National Title VII Practice. This year, Ms. Harwin was one of just five employment attorneys under 40 nationwide named a Rising Star by Law360. At Sanford Heisler Sharp as co-lead counsel, Ms. Harwin represented over 2,000 directors, managers, specialists, and sales professionals in a gender discrimination class and collective action against eye-care company Alcon, and its parent company, pharmaceutical giant Novartis. Currently, Ms. Harwin stewards two of Sanford Heisler Sharp's groundbreaking gender discrimination lawsuits against Big Law firms: she represents multiple female partners suing Chadbourne & Parke and its successor firm, Norton Rose Fulbright US, as well as a female partner in litigation against Proskauer Rose. She is also co-lead counsel in a sexual harassment case against Columbia, which is scheduled to go to trial in July 2018. Ms. Harwin is also litigating against fashion houses Zara and Giorgio Armani in discrimination and retaliation suits brought by their former general counsels.
• Kate Mueting, Iowa College of Law ‘07, has been a Partner since January 2016 and currently serves as lead counsel in the hard-fought Donna Kassman et al. v. KPMG LLP, the nation’s largest gender discrimination class and collective action. Ms. Mueting leads a team of more than a dozen women fighting to challenge gender discrimination at the Big Four accounting firm.  Since winning conditional certification of the Equal Pay Act claims in July 2014, more than 1100 female employees have joined the litigation as a means of securing fair and equitable compensation.  Ms. Mueting also provides counsel to individual employees facing discrimination, including numerous C-Suite executives and several Big Law partners challenging gender discrimination, and to date she has garnered nearly $15 million on behalf of her clients.

In addition, Ella Zheng was promoted from Associate to Senior Counsel in the San Francisco office and Christine Dunn and Saba Bireda were promoted from Associate to Senior Litigation Counsel in Washington, DC

• Ms. Zheng, Zhejiang University Bachelor of Law ‘09 and Thomas Jefferson School of Law, Masters of laws ‘10, currently works on individual and class litigation involving wage and hour violations, discrimination and other civil rights claims, and leads several pre-litigation employment discrimination cases. She also represents whistleblowers in False Claims Act cases.  Zheng is a member of the firm’s Financial Services practice advising entities on transactions and regulatory and compliance issues.
• Ms. Dunn, University of Virginia School of Law, ‘99, is involved in firm matters including whistleblower/qui tam cases and employment discrimination matters. Ms., Dunn is currently working on the firm’s race discrimination class action against the U.S. Marshals, which will likely go to trial in 2018; and she represents numerous individuals in employment discrimination matters that are in pre-litigation settlement discussions.
• Ms. Bireda, Harvard Law School ’07, began working at the firm in June 2016 and has been a member of the team on the gender discrimination case against Norton Rose Fulbright and Chadbourne & Parke. Ms. Bireda also led several individual matters involving race and gender discrimination to resolution during her time with the firm. She has spearheaded the Firm’s drafting of an amicus brief on behalf of members of Congress in the U.S.Supreme Court case, Bank of America/Wells Fargo v. City of Miami. Ms. Bireda has also worked on two other class actions while at the Firm, Donna Kassman v. KPMG LLP and Fogg v. United States Marshals Service.

Ellen Peterson (University of Michigan Law School ‘15) in Washington, DC and Nicole Wiitala (Pace University School of Law ‘16) in New York were promoted from Fellows to Associates.  New Associates include Hannah Wolf (New York University School of Law ‘15) and Leigh Anne St. Charles (Columbia Law School ‘14) in Nashville; and Andrew Miller (Harvard Law School ‘11) and Aimee Krause Stewart (Stanford Law School ‘13) in Washington, DC

The firm also named Adán Martínez (Yale Law School ‘17) and Jonathan Hiles (Harvard Law School ‘16) Litigation Fellows in New York, Ashlend Moss (George Washington Law School ‘16 and Georgetown University Law Center, L.L.M. ‘17) a Litigation Fellow in Washington, DC and Cara Van Dorn, (Wake Forest University School of Law ‘17) a litigation fellow in San Diego.

Jimmy Richardson (Harvard Law School ‘09) was named Acting Managing Attorney in San Francisco, and Bob Sullivan (University of Kansas School of Law ‘68) was named Counsel in Kansas.

Albert Powell (University of Texas School of Law ‘89) was named Staff Attorney in the New York office.

All the personnel changes became effective January 1, 2018.

About Sanford Heisler Sharp

Sanford Heisler Sharp has extensive experience representing plaintiffs with claims involving employment discrimination, wage and hour violations, predatory lending, whistleblowing, False Claims Act (qui tam), consumer fraud, financial elder abuse, 401(K) (ERISA) matters, actions brought under Dodd-Frank, SEC whistleblower matters, and other claims. The firm also has achieved significant positive results in representing executives, attorneys and managers in contract and employment disputes throughout the United States.

For more information, contact Jamie Moss, newsPRos, 646-791-4848, [email protected]