Find Lawyers in District of Columbia, United States for Qui Tam Law
Practice Area Overview
The term qui tam comes from the Latin phrase "he who sues on behalf of the King, as well as for himself.” In other words, the FCA is no mere fraud hotline to report unethical behavior by a government contractor – the FCA gives any person the right to file a full-blown federal lawsuit on behalf of the United States. Because qui tam relators (or whistleblowers as they are sometimes called) bring claims on behalf of the United States in Court, they must be represented by licensed counsel.
By creating incentives for individuals with first-hand information to hire private counsel and prosecute lawsuits in conjunction with the Department of Justice, the statute creates a true public-private partnership between individuals with knowledge of fraud, private practice lawyers specializing qui tam litigation, and federal prosecutors. The public private partnership created by the FCA has been an unparalleled success; since 1986 more than $40 billion has been recovered, and qui tam whistleblowers have received hundreds of millions of dollars for their efforts.
Such recoveries are by no means easy or quick. In addition to understanding the complex needs of modern government and the commercial entities servicing those needs, qui tam litigation has a number of unusual requirements not found in other types of federal civil litigation. Those requirements – many of which are jurisdictional – include a pre-filing disclosure memorandum, a heightened pleading standard for the Complaint, and a number of unusual procedural hurdles such as filing the Complaint under seal.
State governments have taken notice of the successes of the United States and to date 29 state governments and the District of Columbia have passed some form of FCA-style qui tam statute.
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Michael Filoromo joined Katz Banks Kumin in May 2008. Now a partner at the firm and the President of the Eastern Pennsylvania Chapter of the National Employment Lawyers Association, Mr. Filoromo has helped achieve successful outcomes under whistleblower laws, including a $2.4 million award for a client through the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) whistleblower program, one of the first 50 awards the SEC issued. Most recently, he represented a whistleblower in a qui tam lawsuit against...
Adam Herzog, a partner of Katz Banks Kumin, joined the Firm in December 2013. Mr. Herzog has represented numerous clients pursuing whistleblower tips before the SEC and CFTC and has successfully assisted them in earning millions of dollars in award payments. He regularly represents for-profit and non-profit executives in negotiating employment agreements. He also counsels employees from all levels of organizations negotiating separation and severance agreements. A dedicated advocate, Mr. Herz...
Adam Hoffinger's litigation and trial practice focuses on complex civil and white‑collar criminal matters, including securities, health care, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, False Claims Act, export controls, money laundering, antitrust, and bankruptcy. He counsels corporations and individuals in compliance matters, internal investigations, and Congressional and regulatory matters. He also represents corporations and individuals in high stakes civil litigation. Mr. Hoffinger has defended numer...
Recognized by the Washington Post as “ the feared attorney of the #MeToo movement ,” Debra S. Katz has been successfully litigating employment discrimination, civil rights, and whistleblower protection cases for nearly 40 years. Ms. Katz is a founding partner of Katz Banks Kumin LLP, where she concentrates her practice on employment discrimination, sexual harassment, wrongful discharge, whistleblower retaliation claims, and contractual employment disputes. She has developed extens...
Vincent “Vince” McKnight, Jr., is the Managing Partner of Sanford Heisler Sharp’s Washington, D.C., office and Co-Chair of the firm’s Whistleblower Practice. He also represents clients in employment discrimination and wrongful discharge cases. Vince represents whistleblowers in sealed and unsealed False Claims Act/qui tam suits under investigation by the United States and other governmental stakeholders. He has achieved significant success in such cases, including the ...
Andrew Miller joined Baron & Budd’s Washington, D.C. office in 2018, where he focuses on bringing fraud and abuse litigation throughout the United States under such statutes as the federal False Claims Act, state False Claims Acts, the Anti-Kickback Statute and the Stark Law. A shareholder in our Washington D.C. office, Mr. Miller also represents clients with claims filed with the Whistleblower Offices of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Internal Revenue Service. Befor...
Scott Oswald is an accomplished trial lawyer who has brought more than 40 trials to verdict and recovered more than $300 million in judgments and settlements for his clients, in cases ranging from wrongful termination to employer fraud. Mr. Oswald litigates employment lawsuits nationwide, with a special focus on whistleblower matters - including qui tam law, which can deliver monetary rewards to employees who expose fraud against the government. Since founding The Employment Law Group® la...
Alexis Ronickher specializes in representing clients in complex, often high-profile, employment and whistleblower matters, including whistleblower, sexual harassment, and civil rights discrimination and retaliation matters. As part of her whistleblower practice, she represents clients pursuing qui tam claims under the False Claims Act and whistleblower tips through the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rewards program. She has represented whistleblowers in a broad range of specialized i...
Scott Simmer founded the Simmer Law Group in Washington D.C., in 2014, but he’s been practicing law for decades and is a seasoned expert at rooting out deceit and fraud in hidden corners of government programs, education, and healthcare industries. Joining with Baron & Budd in 2018 to form our Washington D.C. office, Mr. Simmer continues to represent whistleblowers bringing qui tam cases of fraud under federal and state False Claims Acts as well as IRS, Securities and Exchange Commi...
Adam Tarosky is a member of the Government Investigations & White Collar Defense practice group. He is a recent alumnus of one of the most powerful offices in the Department of Justice (DOJ). The Civil Fraud Section, the clearinghouse for all False Claims Act (FCA) activity in the country, annually coordinates the recovery of over $3 billion from health care providers, defense contractors, and other entities and individuals that do business with the federal government. Adam uses the knowl...
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