Rachel L. Jensen

Rachel Jensen is a partner in Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP’s San Diego office who specializes in securities fraud, consumer fraud, RICO, and antitrust actions. Rachel has developed a 20-year track record of success in crafting impactful business reforms and helping to recover billions of dollars on behalf of working families, businesses, and government entities.

Rachel was one of the lead attorneys representing Trump University students nationwide in high-profile litigation that yielded nearly 100% of the “tuition” students paid, and did so on a pro bono basis. As court-appointed Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee member in the Fiat Chrysler EcoDiesel litigation, Rachel helped obtain an $840 million global settlement for concealed defeat devices in over 100,000 vehicles. Rachel also represented drivers against Volkswagen in one of the most brazen corporate frauds in recent history, helping recover $17 billion for emissions cheating in “clean” diesel vehicles.

As reported in The Washington Post, in 2022, Rachel served as co-lead trial counsel in a qui tam case against a bus manufacturer to enforce a “good jobs” U.S. employment plan in a $500 million procurement contract with LA Metro. The settlement included a historic multi-state community benefits agreement with workforce development programs, fair hiring, and equity measures in Ontario, California and Anniston, Alabama. A video about the case can be viewed here: https://fightforthefuture.rgrdlaw.com/. In another landmark case, Rachel worked tirelessly on behalf of California passengers to stop Greyhound from subjecting them to discriminatory immigration raids; since then, Greyhound has stopped allowing border patrol aboard without a warrant.

Among other recoveries, Rachel has played significant roles in In re LendingClub Sec. Litig. (N.D. Cal.) ($125 million securities fraud settlement ranked among top 10 in N.D. Cal. at the time); Negrete v. Allianz Life Ins. Co. of N. Am. (C.D. Cal.) ($250 million to senior citizens targeted for deferred annuities that would not mature in their lifetimes); In re Morning Song Bird Food Litig. (S.D. Cal.) ($85 million in refunds for wild-bird food treated with pesticides hazardous to birds); City of Westland Police & Fire Ret. Sys. v. Stumpf (N.D. Cal.) ($67 million in homeowner down-payment assistance and credit counseling for cities hit by foreclosure crisis and computer integration for mortgage servicing in “robo-signing” case); In re Mattel, Inc., Toy Lead Paint Prods. Liab. Litig. (C.D. Cal.) ($50 million in refunds and quality assurance reforms for toys made in China with lead and magnets); and In re Checking Account Overdraft Litig. (S.D. Fla.) ($500 million recovered from banks for manipulating debit transactions to maximize overdraft fees).

Rachel has been named a Plaintiffs’ Lawyer Trailblazer by The National Law Journal, a Legend, a Leading Lawyer in America, a Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyer, and a Leading Plaintiff Consumer Lawyer by Lawdragon, a Top Woman Lawyer by the Daily Journal, and a California Trailblazer by The Recorder. She has also been recognized for years as a Super Lawyer and a Rising Star by Super Lawyers Magazine. She has also been named Lawyer of the Year: Consumer Law in San Diego by Best Lawyers®, as well as to the Best Lawyers in America and Best Lawyers in America: Ones to Watch lists, as well as Southern California Ones to Watch list. Rachel was on the faculty of the 2019 inaugural Mass Torts MDL Certificate Program at the Bolch Judicial Institute of Duke Law School. She was also a featured speaker at the 2017 Federal Bar Association Women in Law Conference, discussing the roles of grit and risk-taking in breaking barriers for women and people of color in the legal profession.

Rachel has received commendation for her human rights work on behalf of the homeless. In 2006, Rachel co-founded Think Dignity, a non-profit whose mission is to advance basic dignity, served as President from 2006-2011, and remains a Board Member. Think Dignity runs a Transitional Storage Center to allow the unhoused to interview for jobs, work, and receive services; provides free legal clinics and mobile showers; and secured funding for 24/7 public restrooms. In 2022, San Diego County of Board of Supervisors proclaimed October 11 “Think Dignity Day” countywide in recognition of its efforts.

Before joining the practice, Rachel clerked for the late Honorable Warren J. Ferguson on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals; associated with Morrison & Foerster LLP in San Francisco; and worked abroad in Arusha, Tanzania as a law clerk in the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (“ICTR”) and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (“ICTY”), located in The Hague, Netherlands.

Rachel received her Juris Doctor degree from Georgetown University Law School, where she served as Inaugural Editor-in-Chief of the First Annual Review of Gender and Sexuality Law, a publication of the Georgetown Journal of Gender and the Law. During law school, Rachel attended the University of Oxford, International Human Rights Law Program at New College. She also taught Street Law at a public high school in Washington, D.C. Rachel earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the honors program at Florida State University, where she was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and graduated cum laude.

• Lawyer of the Year: Consumer Law, San Diego, Best Lawyers®, 2025
• Best Lawyer in America, Best Lawyers®, 2024-2025
• Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyer, Lawdragon, 2019-2024
• Super Lawyer, Super Lawyers Magazine, 2016-2024
• Leading Plaintiff Consumer Lawyer, Lawdragon, 2022-2024
• Legend, Lawdragon, 2024
• Leading Lawyer in America, Lawdragon, 2017-2024
• Best Lawyer in America: One to Watch, Best Lawyers®, 2021-2023
• Best Lawyer in Southern California: One to Watch, Best Lawyers®, 2021
• Top Woman Lawyer, Daily Journal, 2017, 2020
• California Trailblazer, The Recorder, 2019
• Plaintiffs’ Lawyer Trailblazer, The National Law Journal, 2018
• Rising Star, Super Lawyers Magazine, 2015
• Nominated for 2011 Woman of the Year, San Diego Magazine

Georgetown University Law School, J.D., 2000

• Editor-in-Chief, First Annual Review of Gender and Sexuality Law
• Dean’s List, 1998-1999

Florida State University, B.A., 1997, cum laude

• Phi Beta Kappa

• California
• United States Courts of Appeals for the Second, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth and Ninth Circuits
• United States District Courts for the Northern, Eastern, Central and Southern Districts of California
• United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois

Notable Cases

• Faculty, Mass Torts MDL Certificate Program, Bolch Judicial Institute of Duke Law School

• Member of the Board of Governors, San Diego Chapter, Association of Business Trial Lawyers
• Co-Founder and Board Member, Think Dignity

• Panel Member, Securities Class Actions, West Coast Securities Litigation Regional CLE Program, Los Angeles, California; May 5, 2023
• The Duke Law Bolch Judicial Institute, Mass-Tort MDL Certificate Program, Durham, North Carolina; March 13-15, 2019
• Panel Member, Inspiring Leaders: Grit and Growth Skills for Attorneys Reaching for the Top, Federal Bar Association Women in Law Conference, San Diego, California; February 2, 2017

Publications

• Contributor, Inclusivity and Excellence: Guidelines and Best Practices for Judges Appointing Lawyers to Leadership Positions In MDL and Class Action Litigation (James F. Humphreys Complex Litigation Center George Washington Law School, Sept. 24, 2020)
• Co-Author, “Introduction,” First Annual Review of Gender & Sexuality Law, Geo. J. Gender & L., vol. 1, no. 2 (Spring 2000)
• Co-Author, “Equal Protection,” First Annual Review of Gender & Sexuality Law, Geo. J. Gender & L., vol. 1, no. 2 (Spring 2000)
• Co-Author, “Sexual Harassment in Education,” First Annual Review of Gender & Sexuality Law, Geo. J. Gender & L., vol. 1, no. 2 (Spring 2000)
• Co-Author, “Sexual Harassment in Employment,” First Annual Review of Gender & Sexuality Law, Geo. J. Gender & L., vol. 1, no. 2 (Spring 2000)
• Co-Author, “From Whence We have Come,” Forward from the Editors of the First Annual Review of Gender & Sexuality Law, Geo. J. Gender & L., vol. XII, no. III (2011)
• Contributing Author, Select Modules, Ralph G. Steinhardt, Paul L. Hoffman & Christopher N. Camponovo, International Human Rights Lawyering: Cases and Materials (American Casebook Series 1st ed. 2008)