Shounak S. Dharap

About

Shounak leads the firm's complex litigation practice. His cases span class actions, consumer protection, wage theft, sexual abuse, civil rights, and catastrophic injury — but they share a common thread: holding powerful institutions accountable when they harm the people they're supposed to serve.

He has been appointed class counsel in federal and state courts and has appeared before the California Court of Appeal and the Ninth Circuit. His work has taken on companies like Alphabet, Amazon, Tesla, and Botanic Tonics, institutions like San Jose State and U.S. Figure Skating, and record labels like Top Dawg Entertainment. He approaches each case with the same question: what systemic failure allowed this to happen, and how do we make sure it doesn't happen again?

Shounak is a first-generation American who grew up in the Bay Area and came to the law through USF School of Law, where he graduated cum laude. Other lawyers increasingly seek him out for the cases they can't figure out — situations where something is clearly wrong but the legal path to fix it isn't obvious. That's where he does his best work, and it's how he's built a reputation defined by creative, analytical problem-solving on behalf of people who have been told there's nothing that can be done.

Outside the courtroom, Shounak served two terms as a trustee and president of the Palo Alto Unified School District Board of Education, where he championed mental health funding, equity initiatives, and transparent governance. He is also a trained mediator and an adjunct professor at USF School of Law, where, most recently, he taught a course on applied AI for lawyers. He is raising two young daughters in the community where he was raised.