Find Lawyers in America 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.
Corporate Law & Commercial Litigation Legal Guide 2023
View Legal GuideSelect a location from the list below to find the best legal talent for your needs.
State
A. Brian Albritton concentrates his practice on “white collar” criminal defense; False Claims Act and Qui Tam litigation; defending regulatory enforcement actions brought by government agencies, including unfair/deception trade practice actions brought by the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general; regulatory compliance; and complex commercial litigation, including the prosecution and defense of claims relating to trade secret theft, non-competition agreements and ot...
A special counsel at Burnette Shutt & McDaniel, civil rights attorney Stuart Andrews brings determination and intensity to every case. He’s devoted decades to bringing about systemic reform and giving lower-income South Carolinians greater access to the courts, both through the clients he's represented and the policies he's helped put in place. Through his former practice at a large regional law firm, Stuart established the firm's first structured pro bono program. The effort earned...
Edward Baker represents a broad range of whistleblowers and has extensive experience with healthcare fraud under the federal False Claims Act and equivalent state acts. Prior to joining Lieff Cabraser, Mr. Baker was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of California, where he was the Civil Healthcare Fraud Coordinator, as well as the Elder Justice Coordinator, within the Affirmative Civil Enforcement practice group. As an AUSA, Mr. Baker investigated numerous FCA cases, includin...
James F. Bennett has a national practice of cases that are not expected to settle before trial or appeal. He is lead trial and appellate counsel in high-profile cases, and has tried to verdict many cases involving eight- and nine-figure amounts in dispute. He has also prevailed before trial in other, similar cases and has argued appeals in eight different appellate courts around the country. Three times in recent years, he was awarded the “largest” defense or plaintiff verdict awa...
Lee Bentley’s practice includes the defense of False Claims Act and qui tam cases, internal investigations, and white collar criminal matters. He specializes in telemedicine/telehealth, compound pharmacy, and urine toxicology cases, among other alleged fraud schemes. His experience also includes complex civil litigation involving government entities. Lee has handled trials and appeals in numerous federal and state courts, and has served as sole or lead counsel in almost 40 civil and cri...
Stephen Berry is a partner and Chair of the Orange County Employment Law Department. He concentrates his practice in the representation of public and private employers in all aspects of employment law and labor relations, including defense of wage and hour and Fair Credit Reporting Act class actions, as well as employee mobility/trade secret protection, discrimination, retaliation, harassment, wrongful discharge, whistleblower, and ADA Title III access lawsuits; union organizing and decertifi...
Based in Seattle, Susman Godfrey partner, Rachel Black, focuses her practice on high-stakes commercial litigation for plaintiffs and defendants, both at the trial and appellate levels. Ms. Black has tried and managed high profile, high stakes, and widely covered matters in state and federal courts across the country involving a variety of claims, including patent infringement, audit malpractice, financial fraud, unfair business practices, environmental remediation, breach of contract, and ant...
Benjamin P. Bucy has significant experience in complex litigation and has focused his practice on representing whistleblowers in qui tam cases under federal and state False Claims Acts. Ben has been involved in all phases of False Claims Act (FCA) cases, including case development, drafting FCA complaints, assisting the Government in sealed FCA investigations, litigating FCA cases and has secured millions of dollars in False Claims Act settlements. Most of Ben’s FCA experience has invol...
Mr. Cashen represents employers in all aspects of employment law and related litigation. He served as chairperson of Bodman's Workplace Law Practice Group for ten years. Mr. Cashen assists clients facing charges of discrimination, sexual harassment, wrongful discharge, Whistleblowers’ Act violations and similar claims in federal and state courts, administrative proceedings and arbitration hearings. He has conducted numerous trials and arbitrations in Michigan, Ohio, Missouri and Wiscons...
Bob Clifford is the founder of Clifford Law Offices, which concentrates its practice in helping victims of personal injury, medical malpractice, mass torts, consumer and health care fraud, product liability, and aviation and transportation disasters. Bob regularly handles complex damage cases and routinely receives multi-million dollar verdicts and settlements. Mr. Clifford has represented those injured or killed in every major commercial airline crash in the U.S. in the last three decades. C...
Barry N. Covert focuses his practice primarily in the following areas: New York State and federal criminal trials and appeals Constitutional law, including First Amendment, Second Amendment, and civil rights actions Qui Tam Act, also known as the False Claims Act Defending against allegations of scientific misconduct, scientific fraud, research misconduct, research fraud, plagiarism, and fabrication of evidence Defense of professional licensing, including for attorneys, doctors, and nurses Ti...
For over 22 years, Edward T. Ellis has represented employers in discrimination cases involving age, race, sex and disability; whistleblower actions; and trade secret and non-compete matters. Ed has tried more than 40 cases to verdict before juries and has represented clients at hundreds of bench trials, arbitrations and administrative proceedings. He has specific trial experience with cases under: Title VII The Age Discrimination in Employment Act The Americans With Disabilities Act The Sarba...
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...
Brian French is a partner and member of the firm’s Government Investigations and White Collar Defense team. He represents clients in government enforcement and internal compliance matters, primarily involving the life sciences and health care industries. What do you focus on? Government Enforcement I represent a wide range of health care organizations, life sciences companies, executives, and employees in government investigations and related criminal and civil litigation initiated by t...
Scott practices primarily in the areas of white-collar criminal defense, asset forfeiture litigation, criminal appellate litigation, criminal and civil healthcare litigation, False Claims Act litigation, and governmental and corporate investigations. He has represented clients who were under state or federal criminal investigation, successfully guiding them through the process and avoiding charges. Scott has trial experience defending criminal cases and represents clients in the federal and s...
Scott Glovsky is one of the most experienced, respected, and trusted insurance lawyers in the nation. With offices in Pasadena and Claremont, California, the Law Offices of Scott Glovsky was founded in 1999 and specializes in insurance bad faith, catastrophic personal injury, health-related litigation, sexual abuse, and trial work. Our firm helps ordinary people suffering because of the negligent and bad acts of organizations and corporations. Our clients have included health insurance policy...
A leader within the plaintiffs’ bar, Lexi J. Hazam Chairs the firm’s Mass Torts Practice group and represents clients in mass tort cases and environmental class actions, as well as whistleblower/false claims act actions. In November 2022, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers of the Northern District of California appointed Lexi as Co-Lead Counsel of MDL 3047, In re Social Media Adolescent Addiction/Personal Injury Products Liability Litigation , the nationwide multi-district litigation ag...
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...
Ty Howard brings the perspective of a former state and federal prosecutor to defending and counseling businesses and individuals involved in government investigations, compliance matters, False Claims Act and whistleblower cases, related business litigation, and white-collar criminal matters. As a litigator and chair of Bradley’s Government Enforcement and Investigations group, he works collaboratively with clients, across many industries, to find creative solutions to their compliance ...
Mark D. Jicka was admitted to the Mississippi Bar in 1991. He is currently on the Steering Committee for DRI's Products Liability Committee and serves as the Expert Witness Chair for that Committee. His practice focuses on defending manufacturers at trial and on appeal. He has handled cases for clients in Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana and Kentucky. His cases of note include Bailey v. Lockheed Martin Corp., 261 Fed. Appx. 713, 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 1006, January 17, 2008;...
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...
With more than 30 years of trial experience, Gregory W. Kehoe has a national and international practice focusing on representation of individuals, corporations and financial institutions. This includes representation before federal and state courts as well as international tribunals. Mr. Kehoe recently represented General Ante Gotovina in his complete acquittal before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Mr. Kehoe also represented General Mohammed Hussein Ali before ...
Zachary Kitts is a founding partner at K&G Law Group, PLLC, where he concentrates his practice in the areas of qui tam litigation, business torts, employment law, and other complex commercial litigation matters. In his qui tam practice, Zach represents relators (or, as they are sometimes called, "whistleblowers") in litigation under the federal False Claims Act and under state false claims statutes. Zach has prosecuted a wide variety of claims for fraud against federal, state and local go...
Chris Lenzo is a partner in the New Jersey law firm of Lenzo & Reis, LLC. He represents employees in employment law matters, including negotiation, mediation, arbitration, trial litigation, and appellate litigation of claims of discrimination, harassment, whistleblower retaliation, wrongful discharge, failure to accommodate disabilities, family and medical leave violations, breach of contract, and wage and hour violations. In his practice, Chris has litigated several reported cases, some ...
Sharon V. Lovejoy represents clients in a wide variety of litigation matters with primary focus in commercial, real estate and business litigation. Ms. Lovejoy has been named to The Best Lawyers in America ® , "Lawyer of the Year" in Honolulu list, Appellate P ractice (2020), Mortgage Banking Foreclosure Law (2015, 2019, 2024) and Litigation-Banking & Finance (2014, 2022). Lovejoy is also recognized by The Best Lawyers in America ® (in “Appellate Law”, "Arbitration", "...
Vincent Marella is a founding partner of Bird Marella, and has more than 30 years of experience representing clients in federal criminal prosecutions and related complex civil litigation. A Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, Vince represents corporations and individuals in grand jury investigations and post-indictment proceedings with a particular emphasis on representing high-level corporate officers and executives in criminal prosecutions, and parallel administrative and civil...
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...
Pete Morse is the administrator of the Labor and Employment Department in Indianapolis, the firm’s largest office. He also co-chairs the firm’s Global Services practice group and was appointed to serve as honorary consul to the country of Japan. Cited in The Best Lawyers in America as a "Lawyer of the Year" on multiple occasions, Pete represents employers in virtually all aspects of labor and employment law for a broad client base, including private and public employers ranging in...
John represents both plaintiffs and defendants in state and federal court and has frequently argued before the South Carolina Supreme Court. He has a diverse litigation and appellate practice, handling matters related to the False Claims Act, health care, personal injury, and business litigation. He also represents governmental clients, such as county and state governments, and private clients before governmental bodies. John has been certified as a mediator since 2005 and serves by appointme...
Neil Mullin has been a plaintiff's employment lawyer for 30 years. He is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and a Fellow of the American College of Labor and Employment Lawyers. A graduate of Columbia University magna cum laude and phi beta kappa, he graduated from Rutgers Law School in Newark, New Jersey. He has been honored as a Distinguished Graduate of Rutgers. He has argued successfully in the Supreme Court of the United States and the Supreme Court of New Jersey. Mr. Mull...
Scarlett Nokes has extensive experience in Title IX and sexual assault investigations and is currently handling numerous civil and criminal matters related to sexual misconduct. Scarlett draws upon her deep experience as a federal prosecutor to represent clients in a range of matters related to internal investigations, internal risk analysis, government investigations, white-collar criminal defense, regulatory and compliance issues, civil litigation and enforcement actions. Her clients benefi...
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...
Having already established a reputation as a trial lawyer with another firm, Scott Powell came to Hare, Wynn, Newell & Newton as a full partner in 1986. Since that time, his diverse practice has taken him throughout the states of Alabama, Arkansas, and Missouri as well as Texas, Tennessee, Ohio, Georgia, and Louisiana. Among the types of cases he has handled include litigation under the False Claims Act for qui tam plaintiffs, class action litigation involving complex legal issues, commer...
Terry E. Richardson Jr. is one of the pre-eminent plaintiff attorneys in the southeastern United States. While many other lawyers operate within a single practice area, Richardson is a consummate litigator who represents individuals, governments and businesses on a wide range of legal matters. His intellectual curiosity has led to much success in his legal career on cases ranging from catastrophic personal injury to products liability, securities fraud and class actions. From agrarian roots i...
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...
Leader of the firm’s Government Compliance & Investigations group, Chris Sabis recognizes that merely “responding” to governmental inquiries, enforcement actions, and litigation is often insufficient to protect his clients’ interests. Rather, he understands that efficient resolutions and positive outcomes in such matters are products of thoughtful and proactive approaches and the ability to take the initiative in addressing the concerns and issues that draw regulat...
Our Methodology
Recognition by Best Lawyers is based entirely on peer review. Our methodology is designed to capture, as accurately as possible, the consensus opinion of leading lawyers about the professional abilities of their colleagues within the same geographical area and legal practice area.
The Process
Best Lawyers employs a sophisticated, conscientious, rational, and transparent survey process designed to elicit meaningful and substantive evaluations of the quality of legal services. Our belief has always been that the quality of a peer review survey is directly related to the quality of the voters.