Leigh Anne St. Charles
Top rated Employment Litigation attorney in Nashville, Tennessee
Sanford Heisler Sharp, LLP
Practice Areas: Employment Litigation, Employee Benefits, Civil Litigation; view more
Licensed in Tennessee since: 2018
Education: Columbia Law School
Selected to Rising Stars: 2019 - 2023 Call today:
615-245-6960
Virtual Appointments Sanford Heisler Sharp, LLP
611 Commerce StreetSuite 3100
Nashville, TN 37203 Visit website
Details
Leigh Anne St. Charles serves as the Managing Partner of Sanford Heisler Sharp, LLP’s Nashville, Tennessee office. She concentrates her practice on financial services litigation and employment law matters that involve discrimination and harassment in the workplace.
With immense experience representing clients with claims related to discrimination based on gender, age and disability, FMLA, and retaliation, Ms. St. Charles also represents clients with matters related to breach of fiduciary duty and 401(k) plan mismanagement.
Ms. St. Charles is a passionate and dedicated attorney who fiercely advocates for the rights and liberties of her clients. She has a long record of securing favorable settlements on behalf of her clients. Professional and diligent, she helps her clients navigate through this difficult phase in their lives as well as the legal process.
She has a bachelor’s degrees in philosophy and history from Western Kentucky University. Ms. St. Charles earned her Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School. While in law school, she served as the notes editor for the Journal of Law and Social Problems. She was a James Kent and Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and a member of the board of the Workers’ Rights Student Coalition and the American Constitution Society. She served as a teaching assistant for disability law, and also she tutored middle school students through the Harlem Tutorial Project.
And she is admitted to practice before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Middle District of Tennessee, and Eastern District of Tennessee. She is the co-author of an article about 401 (k) plans titled “Brokerage Windows in 401(k) Plans: The Total Abdication of Fiduciary Responsibility” in the Benefits Law Journal.
In honor of her legal work, Ms. St. Charles has been recognized by renowned legal associations. She has been named to the list of 2022 Best Lawyers in America’s Ones to Watch list for her exceptional work in the area of labor and employment law for employees. She was also on the Best Lawyers in America’s Ones to Watch list in the year 2021 in the area of Employment Law – Individuals and she is also named to Business Insider’s 2022 Rising Stars of the Courtroom.
Practice areas
Employment Litigation: Plaintiff, Employee Benefits, Civil Litigation: PlaintiffFocus areas
Employment Discrimination, Retaliation, Wrongful Termination
- 40% Employment Litigation: Plaintiff
- 40% Employee Benefits
- 20% Civil Litigation: Plaintiff
First Admitted: 2015, Washington DC
Professional Webpage: https://www.sanfordheisler.com/team/leigh-anne-st-charles/
- B.A., Western Kentucky University, 2010
- Tennessee, 2018
- U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, 2019
- U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, 2018
- U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, 2017
- District of Columbia, 2015
- Leigh Anne was co-counsel for the plaintiffs on Manlove, et al. v. Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft, et al. (1:18-cv-145) a class and collective action filed under the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act and the Tennessee Human Rights Act in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee against Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft (“Volkswagen AG”) and two wholly owned subsidiaries, Volkswagen Group of America, Inc., and Volkswagen Group of America Chattanooga Operations, LLC. The Complaint, which only sought injunctive relief, alleged that the German automaker engaged in a company-wide policy of age discrimination against employees 50 years and older. The named Plaintiff was a former assistant manager at Volkswagen AG's Chattanooga, Tenn. auto manufacturing plant who was demoted as part of a company-wide policy to displace older workers, the Complaint alleged. After the Class was granted certification by the Court in 2019, a settlement was reached in 2020 in which Volkswagen agreed to implement significant programmatic measures and reforms to remedy the discriminatory policy and practices alleged by the Class., 2020
- Leigh Anne was part of the team that obtained an $8.3M arbitration award, including $1.1 million in punitive/emotional distress damages, on behalf of Claimant Dr. Yuhui David Chen against Silicon Valley semiconductor company InnoGrit Corporation, its parent company Shanghai InnoGrit Technologies Co., Ltd., and InnoGrit CEO Dr. Zining Wu. The arbitrator found that Dr. Wu and InnoGrit made and then disregarded false promises and representations to grant Dr. Chen a 20% equity share of the company, and in doing so committed both breach of contract and fraud. Further, in light of Dr. Wu’s fraudulent, dishonorable conduct, the arbitrator held him personally liable for punitive damages as a punishment meant to “actively discourage” him “from trying to deceive and manipulate others (including other employees of InnoGrit) in the future.” The final award was the culmination of a years-long legal battle following Dr. Chen’s original complaint filed in Santa Clara Superior Court on October 31, 2018. , 2021
- Business Insider Rising Star, 2022
- The 22nd annual award recognizes women who have "shattered the glass ceiling" and are "lifting others as they climb" in their careers. , Profiles in Diversity Journal Women Worth Watching in Leadership Award, https://issuu.com/diversityjournal/docs/pdj-q3_23/120, 2023
- Best Lawyers in America: Ones to Watch – Recognized for work in the field of "Employment Law - Individuals", 2021
- Best Lawyers in America: Ones to Watch – Recognized for work in the field of "Labor and Employment Law – Employee, 2022
- Mid-South Rising Star, Super Lawyers, 2020
- Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch, Best Lawyers in America, 2021
- Mid-South Rising Star, Super Lawyers, 2019
- Leigh Anne is co-lead counsel on Snyder v. UnitedHealth Group (0:21-CV-01049 (JRT/BRT), a class action filed on behalf of some 150,000 individuals under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) in U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota. The Complaint alleges that the defendant health insurance giant UnitedHealth breached fiduciary duties of prudence and loyalty under ERISA by failing to remove a chronically under-performing Wells Fargo Suite as default investments on the company 401(k) plan. The Complaint alleges that UnitedHealth's chief financial officer and executive leadership personally intervened to keep the poorly performing Suite because Wells Fargo is a major financier and customer for UnitedHealth. The matter is currently headed to trial, after the Court mostly denied UnitedHealth's motion for summary judgment. , 2024
- Leigh Anne is co-counsel for the plaintiff class on Cutrone v. The Allstate Corp., et al. (1:20 CV 6463) in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, a class action brought under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). The Complaint alleges not only that Allstate failed to monitor under-performing target date funds in its 401(k) retirement plan, but also that Allstate allowed two fund investment advisers to charge unreasonable fees and that it ignored a kickback scheme between one of the advisers and the plan's recordkeeper. The plaintiff class consists of approximately 44,000 current and former plan participants and their beneficiaries. , 2024
Office location for Leigh Anne St. Charles
611 Commerce Street
Suite 3100
Nashville, TN 37203
Phone: 615-245-6960
Selections
- Rising Stars: 2019 - 2023
