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At a Glance
| Founded by | David Sanford and Jeremy Heisler in 2004, later joined by named partners Kevin Sharp (2017) and H. Vincent McKnight Jr. (2024) (per the firm) |
| Focus | Plaintiff-side employment discrimination, wage and hour class actions, and whistleblower/qui tam litigation, as one of seven national offices (per the firm) |
| Office | 17 State Street, Suite 3700, New York, NY 10004 (Financial District, Manhattan) — the firm’s largest office and one of its two original locations |
| Signature results | Firm states it won a $253 million jury verdict against Novartis for gender discrimination, recognized by The American Lawyer as the largest verdict ever awarded in an employment discrimination class action (per the firm) |
| Distinctive edge | A firm built specifically around large-scale class and collective actions against major corporations rather than individual case volume, with over half a billion dollars recovered for plaintiffs firm-wide (per the firm) |
| Fee model | Not published on the firm’s site; prospective clients should confirm directly |
| Known for | Large employment discrimination class actions, wage and hour misclassification suits, whistleblower/False Claims Act cases, and 401(k) mismanagement litigation (per the firm) |
Origin and Background
David Sanford and Jeremy Heisler founded the firm in 2004 with a stated goal of litigating public interest and social justice cases, and Manhattan was one of the firm’s two original offices, per the firm’s own site — it is now the firm’s largest location among seven nationwide. The firm has since added two more named partners: Kevin Sharp, a former Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, joined in 2017, and H. Vincent McKnight Jr., co-chair of the firm’s Whistleblower and Qui Tam Practice Group, became a named partner in 2024. That trajectory — a two-person 2004 startup growing into a seven-office firm led partly by a former federal judge — is documented across the firm’s own history pages and independent legal-industry coverage.
What Makes This Firm Structurally Different
Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight is built around large class and collective actions rather than individual case volume: the firm states it has recovered over half a billion dollars for plaintiffs, anchored by a $253 million jury verdict against Novartis for gender discrimination in pay, promotions, and pregnancy-related treatment, a case that benefited more than 7,000 female pharmaceutical sales representatives and which The American Lawyer recognized as the largest employment discrimination class-action verdict in U.S. history, per the firm. That scale of litigation — multi-thousand-person classes rather than single-plaintiff matters — is a different model from most boutique employment firms.
Practice Areas
- Employment discrimination class actions
- Wage and hour and misclassification litigation
- Whistleblower and qui tam / False Claims Act representation
- Sexual harassment and Title IX litigation
- ERISA and 401(k) mismanagement claims
- Executive and individual employment representation
Track Record
Beyond the $253 million Novartis gender-discrimination verdict, the firm states it separately negotiated a $99 million wage-and-hour settlement on behalf of more than 7,000 Novartis sales representatives for unpaid overtime, after winning a Second Circuit appeal establishing the underlying misclassification claim. In June 2025, the firm states it secured final approval of a $69 million settlement on behalf of more than 350,000 beneficiaries of the UnitedHealth Group 401(k) Savings Plan. These are the firm’s own characterizations of matters and settlement figures; Awesome Attorneys did not independently verify every recovery amount against court records. Past results in any matter do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any future matter.
Client Voice
Awesome Attorneys did not identify a set of independently attributed, publicly posted individual client reviews for the firm’s New York office specifically as of the research date, consistent with a practice built primarily around large class actions rather than individually marketed client relationships.
Beyond the Courtroom
The firm states its attorneys have represented plaintiffs in litigation described as advancing broader public-interest goals beyond individual case outcomes, including a pending class action on behalf of more than 10,000 current and former African American Deputy U.S. Marshals alleging racial discrimination in hiring, promotion, and assignment dating back to 1994, according to the firm’s own case descriptions.
Recognition
The firm states it was named a 2020 and 2021 Labor and Employment Firm of the Year by Benchmark Litigation, and the National Law Journal’s Elite Trial Lawyers named it 2021 Employment Rights Firm of the Year and Human Rights Firm of the Year. Best Law Firms awarded the firm Tier 1 rankings in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Nashville in its 2026 guide. Founding partner David Sanford was inducted into the National Law Journal’s Elite Trial Lawyers Hall of Fame in 2015 and has been named a Law360 Employment MVP in multiple years, per his firm biography. New York does not maintain a formal board-certification system for employment law comparable to Texas’s TBLS, so Awesome Attorneys does not apply “specialist” language to any attorney at this firm on that basis.
New York Legal Backdrop
Employment discrimination claims in New York can generally be brought under the New York State Human Rights Law (Executive Law § 296) and the New York City Human Rights Law (NYC Administrative Code § 8-107), both broader in coverage than federal law. As of a 2023 amendment effective February 15, 2024, most NYSHRL discrimination and retaliation claims carry a three-year statute of limitations, matching the NYCHRL’s three-year window for civil actions (NYC Admin. Code § 8-502). Federal Title VII claims generally require an EEOC charge within 300 days in New York, and wage claims under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act generally carry a two-year limitations period (three years for willful violations). None of this is legal advice; a specific employment dispute should be evaluated by a licensed New York attorney based on the actual facts and filing deadlines involved.
Awesome Attorneys Assessment
Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight’s clearest differentiator is scale: a firm built specifically for large, multi-plaintiff class and collective actions, anchored by what the firm says is the largest employment discrimination class-action verdict in U.S. history and hundreds of millions more in wage and 401(k) settlements. The honest trade-off is that this model is built for group litigation against major institutions, not for an individual employee with a single, smaller-dollar dispute who wants close, one-on-one attention from day one; the firm’s own published matters are almost entirely large-scale class actions rather than individual representations. For an employee who believes their situation reflects a broader, company-wide pattern worth a class or collective action, or a whistleblower considering a qui tam claim, this firm’s specific litigation history makes it a reasonable one to have on a shortlist; someone with an individual dispute unlikely to become a class action may be better served by a smaller, individually focused practice.
Methodology and Sourcing
This profile was researched from Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight’s own website, including its firm history, New York office, and attorney biography pages for David Sanford and Jeremy Heisler, cross-referenced against independent coverage from Benchmark Litigation, Chambers & Partners, and a GlobeNewswire press release confirming the UnitedHealth Group 401(k) settlement approval.
Publisher Disclosure and Independence Notice
Awesome Attorneys is an independent legal directory and editorial publication. This profile was not paid for, commissioned, or reviewed by Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight, LLP prior to publication. Awesome Attorneys does not endorse, recommend, or warrant any profiled firm, and inclusion in this directory is not a paid placement. “Awesome Attorneys” is a brand name only and does not constitute a rating or ranking claim. Facts stated are current only as of this profile’s research date.