Partner Reflection: Janette Wipper
By Janette Wipper, Partner and Firmwide Head of Litigation | August 2024
For 20 years, Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight has built a rich track record successfully representing women in high-impact gender discrimination cases. In 2010, the firm secured what remains the largest jury verdict in U.S. history in an employment gender discrimination case — $253 million for some 7,000 female sales representatives of the pharmaceutical giant Novartis for gender discrimination in pay, promotions, and pregnancy. Not only did the firm’s early commitment to gender equity culminate in the Novartis victory, it also laid the groundwork for many other successes to follow.
During the firm’s initial years, a majority of the firm’s cases were brought on behalf of women across the country. In 2007, the firm represented a class of female sales employees of the pharmaceutical corporation Sanofi-Aventis alleging systemic gender discrimination in pay and promotions. The case resulted in more than $15 million in monetary benefits, plus $13.4 million in pay equity adjustments over a five-year period. In 2011, the firm represented female accounting professionals of KPMG to remedy systemic gender discrimination in pay, promotion and pregnancy. The case awarded more than $10 million in monetary benefits, plus additional pay equity adjustments to the company’s female employees. In 2013, the firm also represented female sales employees of Daiichi Sankyo alleging unequal pay and gender discrimination in pay and promotions. The case awarded more than $8 million in monetary benefits, plus additional pay equity adjustments to the company’s female employees.
After a decade, the firm continued its work on behalf of women. In 2016, the firm represented a class of female engineers of Qualcomm alleging gender discrimination in pay and promotions. The case awarded more than $19.5 million in monetary benefits, plus additional pay equity adjustments to the company’s female employees. In addition to these gender discrimination cases, the firm has represented women challenging unequal pay and discrimination in many industries, which improved the current and future workplaces for women across the country.
Today, the firm remains one of the nation’s leading law firms advocating for women in the workplace. Many of the firm’s female clients are top performers in their fields, serving in high-profile roles in industries as diverse as technology, law, finance, accounting, publishing, pharmaceuticals, academia, and medicine. Despite their talents and commitment to high-quality work, many professional women experience sex discrimination that aims to disrupt or derail their career plans. When that happens, the firm has demonstrated its commitment time and again to zealously advocate on their behalf for over two decades.
