Brent A. Hannafan

Brent Hannafan is a Partner at Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight and Co-Chair of the firm’s Trial Practice Group.

At Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight, Brent’s practice has focused on employment discrimination, public interest litigation, and complex civil litigation, representing both individuals and classes. Brent also handles select federal criminal defense matters.

Working with a team of Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight attorneys, Brent has represented clients including:

• Trial counsel in the trial of Graham Chase Robinson against the actor Robert De Niro and his company, Canal Productions, in her claims of gender discrimination and retaliation against the company
• Trial counsel for the damages phase of a trial resulting in the jury awarding our client, a paraplegic, $7 million in compensatory damages and $400,000 in punitive damages against a residential complex and its homeowners association for failure to provide the reasonable accommodation of an assigned accessible parking space to our client
• Trial counsel in the recent trial of Mattson, et al. v. Milliman, Inc. (WDWA) on the class’s claims of breaches of ERISA’s duties of loyalty and prudence
• Dozens of counties and cities across the nation in their claims against opioid manufacturers, distributors, pharmacies, and pharmacy benefit managers
• The ongoing class litigation on behalf of current and former 401(k) plan participants in claims of fiduciary breach against UnitedHealth Group in Snyder v. UnitedHealth Group, Inc. et al.
• The Mayor and City Council of Baltimore in claims against Polymer80 for manufacturing, selling, and advertising easy-to-assemble, un-traceable ghost gun kits and parts
• Litigating discrimination claims on behalf of a bank’s senior executive

Brent received his law degree from Washington University and his undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt University. While at Washington University, he was an Articles Editor on the law review Journal of Urban and Contemporary Law.

Brent is a member of the Tennessee and New York bars. Before joining Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight, Brent was an Assistant United States Attorney in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee. Brent investigated and prosecuted all variety of federal crimes and tried over 20 criminal jury trials to verdict. In 2017, Brent was awarded a Department of Justice Director’s Award for his prosecution of members of a large-scale drug trafficking organization and obstruction of justice by a local police office.

Brent served as the Chief of the Office’s Criminal Division from 2017 to 2023. As Chief of the Criminal Division, he managed and oversaw all federal criminal investigations and prosecutions in the Middle District of Tennessee. Those cases involved health care fraud, bank, wire, mail, investment, and tax frauds, public corruption, murder-for-hire, drug trafficking, firearms, money laundering, RICO, VICAR, civil rights violations, terrorism, child exploitation, and immigration offenses. As Criminal Chief, he participated in trial preparation, strategic planning, and advising trial teams for more than 50 trials.

Prior to joining the United States Attorney’s Office, Brent worked a litigation associate at two international law firms in New York and Chicago.

Brent taught as an instructor at the Department of Justice’s National Advocacy Center’s Basic Trial Advocacy Course from 2010 to 2023. He also teaches Trial Advocacy as an Adjunct Professor at Belmont College of Law.