Russell Lasser Kornblith

Russell Kornblith is the New York Managing Partner of Sanford Heisler Sharp. He practices both employment law and whistleblower law, representing individuals and classes in a wide range of disputes, including claims of unlawful termination, unlawful denials of promotions, unequal pay, and hostile work environment, related to race, gender, pregnancy, protected leave, and disability. In addition, Russell represents whistleblowers alleging fraud on the U.S. government under the False Claims Act.

He is currently class counsel in a nationwide gender discrimination case against Merck & Co., Inc., in which Sanford Heisler won collective action certification and represents more than 650 women alleging pay discrimination against the pharmaceutical giant. He has also successfully represented individuals in a broad range of individual discrimination claims, including claims brought by in-house counsel, BigLaw partners and associates, and executives in the financial services, pharmaceutical, and advertising industries, among others. Russell represents clients both in litigation matters and in confidential negotiations.

Russell has also successfully pursued whistleblower cases both alongside the government and on a non-intervened basis. Russell was co-lead counsel in the Temple St. Clair whistleblower action filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The case is believed to be the first in the state to recover money for the federal government based on a company’s failure to properly mark its imported products with their country of origin. Russell likewise played a leading role in the Scripps Health System’s $1.5 million whistleblower settlement in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, in which the whistleblower alleged Scripps unlawfully billed the federal government for physical therapy services on behalf of a physician who was not present when the services were rendered. In litigation, Russell obtained a First Circuit victory reversing a trial court’s dismissal of all claims in Nargol et al. v. DePuy Orthopaedics Inc. et al., a case brought by physicians and researchers who were the first to discover the company manufactured and sold large numbers of defective hip implants to the government.

Prior to joining Sanford Heisler Sharp, Russell served as a law clerk for the Honorable Ronald Lee Gilman of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and for the Honorable James S. Gwin of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. As part of Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic, he contributed to several amicus curiae briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court addressing the Alien Tort Statute on behalf of professors of legal history. Before law school, Russell worked as a researcher in support of the successful 2008 campaign of U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen.