Personal Injury
shounak S. dharap
Associate Attorney

Shounak represents workers, consumers, and other injured people through complex litigation in federal and state court, as well as in arbitration. His practice areas include labor and employment (including gig-economy independent contractor misclassification), consumer fraud, elder abuse, sexual abuse, and mass torts (including the Northern California Wildfires). He was selected as a Super Lawyers Rising Star for 2019, 2020, and 2021.
He is also an adjunct professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law, where he teaches a course titled Litigating Workers' Rights in the Gig Economy--a course that provides students with hands-on, simulated legal practice in the area of employment law.
When he is not advocating for clients or teaching students, he serves as one of five elected members, and the current President, of the Palo Alto Unified School District Board of Education, ranked the #1 unified school district in California.
Prior to joining the Arns Law Firm, Shounak worked as a judicial extern for the Honorable Kathleen M. Banke, of the California Court of Appeal and the United States Attorney’s Office.
Memberships: Consumer Attorneys of California, San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association, American Association for Justice, Santa Clara County Bar Association
Practice Areas
Consumer Law
Personal Injury
Wage & Hour
Managerial Misclassification
Independent Contractor Misclassification
Unfair Business Practices
Skilled Nursing / Assisted Living Facility Abuse
Sexual Abuse
Education
University of San Francisco School of Law (2016)
Juris Doctor, cum laude
University of California, Santa Cruz (2012)
B.A. in English Literature
Highlights
Settlements
$4,600,000 settlement on behalf of Instacart shoppers for claims of independent contractor misclassification (2018)
$3,150,000 settlement in wage and hour action on behalf of nursing home employees (2020)
$1,000,000 settlement on behalf of managers
of a fast food restaurant chain bringing claims of managerial misclassification (2019)
$440,000 settlement on behalf of seafood processors who contended they were forcibly quarantined in hotel rooms without pay (2020)
Ongoing Cases
Keller v. Amazon
Hearl v. Shipt
Decker v. Postmates
Jordan v. Instacart
Torres v. North Pacific Seafoods, Inc.
Gregg v. St. Joseph Health
Horne v. CSAA
Grassi v. Fire Insurance Co.
Romero v. Agro Research International LLC
Northern California Fire Cases