Sandra D. Hauser

Sandra D. Hauser is a Partner, the head of Dentons US Commercial Litigation practice, and serves on the Firm's Global Board and Global Litigation and Dispute Resolution Leadership team. Her primary practice area is Commercial Litigation.

A leading lawyer in the financial services sector, she is both part of the Firm's Chambers-recognised Insurance Litigation team and is ranked by The Legal 500 as a Leading Lawyer for Securities Litigation: Defense and Insurance: Advice to Insurers.

She leads the defence of companies facing class actions and complex commercial cases in trial and appellate courts across the US, as well as in challenges before Federal and State regulators. She is praised by clients for her "strategic thinking and effective advocacy," in recognition of both her courtroom achievements and her practical, creative and business-centred advice and exceptional client service. She has been awarded "All-Star" status for Client Service, selected by her clients in response to BTI's listing of lawyers recognised by in-house counsel.

Her clients include major global financial institutions and insurance companies, consumer products and services companies, and health care companies. Her practice spans numerous substantive areas including securities, consumer fraud and deceptive trade practices, privacy, antitrust, financial markets, health care and major insurance disputes (involving life and health, annuities, long-term care, professional liability, workers' compensation, property, commercial general liability, self-insured trusts, cybersecurity, and disputes related to COVID-19).

Her representative experience includes defeating class certification on behalf of two major global insurance companies in separate California federal court challenges to allegedly wrongful terminations of life insurance policies; winning full dismissal, affirmed by the Second Circuit, of five consolidated class actions filed against a major global insurance company claiming $billions in damages and penalties; successfully defending a global Canadian-based bank in a rate-setting Antitrust and Commodities Exchange Act class action in the Southern District of New York; and defeating three successive putative nationwide class actions against a major global insurer challenging rate increases and seeking the return of hundreds of millions of dollars in premiums.

She also defeated class certification on behalf of a major financial institution and its investment advisory group facing a federal 10b-5 securities fraud class action, with the Second Circuit affirming the victory, and secured a permanent injunction in the District of Connecticut against former employees of the same client for misappropriation of trade secrets and client information. She has successfully represented major financial institutions and their officers and directors in securities litigation, regulatory investigations and other high-profile disputes involving mortgage portfolios and residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS), including numerous matters against Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Other matters include achieving dismissal on behalf of a major global technology company of a putative class action seeking to hold the client responsible under California's UCL and CLRA for certain content of third-party game developers; obtaining early exits for several large consumer product companies facing consumer fraud and false advertising class actions; representing media industry clients in securing dismissals with prejudice of consumer privacy class actions brought under the federal Video Privacy Protection Act or similar state statutes; and winning full dismissal of numerous cases in New York State against a global insurer seeking business interruption coverage for COVID-19 related losses, including affirmance on appeal.

She was co-trial counsel for Royal Indemnity Co. in the highly publicised property insurance "occurrence" dispute over the World Trade Center, where Royal prevailed in the trial court and the Second Circuit on a significant portion of its coverage (World Trade Center Props. LLC v. Hartford Fire Ins. Co. et al., 345 F.2d 154 (2d Cir. 2003)). She also led a nationwide team as lead trial counsel and national coordinating counsel for Fireman's Fund with respect to hundreds of claims arising from the sale of fraudulent and unlicensed health plans, winning complete reversal of a trial judgment in the Fourth Circuit.

Her recognition includes being selected as a recipient of the Dentons Lubin Award (2023); ranked as a Leading Individual by The Legal 500 for Securities Litigation: Defense and Insurance: Advice to Insurers, and recognised for Insurance: Advice to Insurers (2014–present), Securities: Litigation – Defense (2014–present), General Commercial Disputes (2015–2023, 2026), Product Liability, Mass Tort and Class Action – Defense: Consumer Products (2023, 2026), and Corporate Investigations and White-Collar Criminal Defense (2018). She was named a BTI Client Service "All-Star" (2020, 2022, 2023); named to Crain's New York Business' 2024 Notable Leaders in Accounting, Consulting & Law, 2023 Notable Women in Law, 2022 Notable Diverse Leaders in Law, and 2020 and 2019 Notable Women in Law; selected as a "Future Star" in New York by Benchmark Litigation (2015); and recognised in Law360's "Class Action Group of the Year" (2014).

She is Chair of the Board of Directors of the National Center for Law and Economic Justice, a member of the Association of Life Insurance Counsel, the New York City Bar Association, the American Bar Association and the New York State Bar Association, and a member of Dentons' Global Board, US Region Board, and Global and US Pro Bono Committees.

She holds a JD, magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School (1991) and an AB, with honors, summa cum laude, from the University of Michigan (1988), where she was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and a James B. Angell Scholar.