WHISTLEBLOWERLAWS - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Partner at Carlton Fields
Adam Schwartz is a Partner at Carlton Fields, where he chairs the firm's White Collar Crime and Government Investigations Practice. He concentrates on white collar criminal defense, False Claims Act (qui tam/whistleblower) defense, and health care fraud and abuse matters. He represents individuals and corporations in internal investigations, securities and accounting fraud, asset forfeiture, real estate and mortgage fraud, defense contractor fraud, money laundering, corporate compliance, grand jury practice and procedure, and complex civil fraud defense. Mr. Schwartz advises clients on BSA/AML and Patriot Act compliance and defends bank officers and directors in FDIC litigation. He counsels pharmaceutical wholesalers on regulatory compliance laws including the Drug Quality and Security Act and the Drug Supply Chain Security Act. Prior to joining the firm, he prosecuted money laundering and asset forfeiture matters as an Assistant U.S. Attorney with the United States Department of Justice. Mr. Schwartz is a highly sought-after speaker on health care fraud, attorney-client privilege considerations, and internal investigation. He has been co-chair of the American Bar Association White Collar Crime Subcommittee since 2007.
Erlanger spokesperson Blaine Kelley said in an emailed statement that the state of Tennessee has already declined to intervene in the case. Erlanger officials are still awaiting confirmation of the U.S. Attorney's office's decision, she said.
Job Titles:
- of Counsel
- Counsel at the Guttman
- Judge Nancy Gertner ( Ret. )
Daniel Guttman serves as Of Counsel at the Guttman, Buschner & Brooks, PLLC, law firm, Washington, DC. Office. He has focused his law practice has on energy, environment, antitrust, whistleblower cases brought under the Federal False Claims act and employment law. He previously served as a partner at Spiegel McDiarmid where he represented cities and states throughout America. He pioneered litigation that led to the application of anti-monopoly law to electric companies and subsequent negotiation of power supply, transmission and coordination arrangements among publicly owned and investor owned utilities. Mr. Guttman represented nuclear weapons workers in litigation relating to the cleanup of the US nuclear weapons complex that led to 2000 enactment by Congress of the "Nuclear Workers Compensation" law, and Department of Energy moratorium on the recycling of radioactive waste for commercial use, school workers in litigation that led to 1986 enactment of the "Asbestos in Schools" law, whistleblowers in litigation that led to hundreds of millions of dollars of recovery by the US government from oil companies and military contractors, janitors in litigation finding Washington DC real estate companies in violation of the District of Columbia Human Rights law, and nuclear workers in litigation that led to a U.S. court finding that the privatization of the U.S. Enrichment Corporation was a model of how not to privatize. He has been pro bono counsel to NGOs engaged in gender equity in international development funding and economic development in the Horn of Africa, and was recipient of a Marshall Fund grant to advise on energy efficiency in the Czech Republic.
Mr. Guttman served in the Administration of President Clinton as Executive Director of President Clinton's Advisory Commission on Human Radiation Experiments (directing a staff of about 60 in investigation of Cold War era government sponsored human experiments and contemporary human subject research) (final report published by Oxford University Press: 1996). He was appointed by President Clinton to serve as a Commissioner of the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. He was special counsel to Senator David Pryor in investigations of the use of contractors to do the basic work of government. In China he has been UNDP advisor to the All China Environment Federation.
Mr. Guttman is also a distinguished scholar and professor, focusing on energy/environment, worker health and safety and public management issues. Following two years as Fulbright scholar in China, his work has focused on the development of cooperative and comparative governance, law and environment educational programs involving US and China institutions. In the U.S., he is a Lecturer at the Whiting School of Engineering/Department of Geography and Environment and Fellow at the Center for Advanced Government Study as well as a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the Emory University Halle Institute. In China he is visiting Professor at the Peking University School of Law public law clinic interest program, where he is co-author of the textbook (实践中的公益法 (Public Interest Law in Practice)(Law Press China: 2012);. visiting Senior Fellow at the Tsinghua University US/China Center, and Research Professor at the Nanjing University School of Environment. He teaches at the New York University Shanghai campus, Shanghai Jiao Tong University and coordinates China Programs for the University of California Santa Barbara Bren School of Environmental Science and Management.
Daniel Guttman focuses his law practice has on energy, environment, antitrust, whistleblower cases brought under the Federal False Claims act and employment law.
Job Titles:
- Medical Director
- of Counsel
Dr. Caroline Poplin graduated from Bryn Mawr College and Yale Law School. She practiced law for twelve years, with the FDA, the EPA, and for several years in Chicago, with Mayer Brown and Platt. Her article in the UCLA Law Review was quoted by Justice Brennan in a 1976 Supreme Court case, Franks v. Bowman Transportation. Seeking a new challenge, she went to medical school at 40, graduating from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and completing her residency in internal medicine at Georgetown University Hospital. Subsequently, she practiced inpatient and outpatient medicine for twelve years for the Department of Defense, first at a community hospital at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, and for five years at Bethesda Naval Hospital, where she received an award for Outstanding Customer Service. She served as an Assistant Professor at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (the military medical school), and on the NIH Institutional Review Board for the National Eye Institute and the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke. She is Board Certified in internal medicine: she re-certified in 2004 and 2014. Dr. Poplin has active medical licenses in Maryland and Virginia. She is a member of the DC Bar and today she practices at the Arlington Free clinic in Arlington Virginia.
After retiring from the Federal government, she served as a Visiting Fellow at the Center for American Progress, and a Visiting Scholar at the Georgetown University Law Center.
Dr. Poplin has provided key legal and medical advice to Mr. Guttman and Ms. Buschner for five years, on important cases involving not only off-label marketing of pharmaceuticals, but attempts by nursing homes and hospitals to defraud Medicare and Medicaid.
She has published articles about health policy reform in academic journals, and a dozen op-eds, which have appeared in major newspapers around the country, such as the Miami Herald, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Baltimore Sun, and Newsday.
Dr. Caroline Poplin, a lawyer and medical doctor, provides legal and medical advice on cases involving off-label marketing of pharmaceuticals, and Medicare/Medicaid fraud.
Job Titles:
- Science & Medical Advisor
Dr. Lisa Wollman was the whistle-blower who alleged that Mass. General Hospital violated Medicare and Medicaid rules when surgeons left operations to trainees because the doctors were juggling multiple operations. Massachusetts General Hospital on Friday agreed to pay $14.6 million to settle a federal lawsuit alleging it fraudulently billed government insurers for surgeries performed by trainees without proper oversight because supervising surgeons were working in another operating room. […]
Job Titles:
- Erlanger 's Former Chief Information Officer
Dr. Stephen Adams is board-certified in both family medicine and medical informatics and is a professor in the department of family medicine at Erlanger's academic affiliate, the University of Tennessee College of Medicine Chattanooga, where he has worked since 1997, according to the suit.
Dr. Julie Adams and her husband, Steinmann, are leaders in their field and were recruited in 2019 to join the college of medicine faculty and Erlanger. At the time, Steinmann was appointed chairman of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery. He is now an emeritus professor of orthopedics at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine.
Job Titles:
- of Counsel
- Category Archives
- Counsel at Guttman
Of Counsel Elizabeth Shofner has a wealth of experience in a defense and plaintiff capacity in complex commercial litigation, including Medicaid, consumer fraud, mortgage-backed securities litigation and corporate governance. She has also developed an expertise in appellate work, beginning with a several year clerkship to Hon. John M. Walker of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
Elizabeth Shofner is Of Counsel at Guttman, Buschner and Brooks focusing on complex civil litigation, including false claims litigation, and corporate governance matters.
Prior to joining GBB, Ms. Shofner was a litigator at Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP and later at Grant & Eisenhofer where she focused on complex commercial litigation, including Medicaid, consumer fraud, mortgage-backed securities litigation and corporate governance matters. She also has experience in intellectual property and appellate work. She served for several years as a law clerk to the Hon. John M. Walker, Jr., of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, during which time she was involved in hundreds of federal appeals involving all areas of law.
Job Titles:
- Acting Corporation Counsel
Job Titles:
- of Counsel
- Judge Nancy Gertner ( Ret. )
Former Federal District Court Judge Nancy Gertner joined Guttman, Buschner & Brooks PLLC as Of Counsel in January of 2019, eight years after retiring from the bench.
Job Titles:
- Founding Partner
- Board Member or Fellow
- Founding Partner of Guttman, Buschner & Brooks
Justin S. Brooks is a founding partner of Guttman, Buschner & Brooks PLLC. Mr. Brooks represents relators in qui tam litigation under the False Claims Act and other federal and state statutes and corporate clients in a wide variety of complex commercial and employment litigation. He also provides employment and compliance counseling to companies, represents institutional investors in shareholder derivative and corporate governance litigation. He has represented clients in claims brought under the Federal False Claims Act, securities laws, the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN), Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), and various employment discrimination, labor and environmental statutes.
Prior to founding the firm, Mr. Brooks practiced at a preeminent plaintiffs firm and two preeminent international defense firms where he focused primarily on qui tam litigation, corporate governance litigation, employment litigation and complex commercial litigation. His extensive experience representing both plaintiffs and defendants provides him with significant insight into how both sides work, benefiting clients, whether institutional investors, individuals, or classes of plaintiffs. He also served as a law clerk to the Hon. Suzanne B. Conlon of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Prior to graduating from law school, he served as an intern to Judge John. E. Sprizzo of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and the Hon. Arlen Specter of the U.S. Senate.
Mr. Brooks authored numerous articles on class action litigation and other topics. Recent publications include: "The Ascertainability Fallacy and its Consequences," AAJ Class Action Newsletter, Spring of 2015 and "Navigating Developing Challenges in Approval of Class and Collective Action Settlements," which was featured in the American Bar Association's Journal of Labor and Employment Law. He received various awards and honors for his academic achievements, including a Merit Award in Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility, and served as an editor for the Michigan Telecommunications and Technology Law Review.
Mr. Brooks graduated in 2005 with a B.A. in psychology from Emory University, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He received his J.D., cum laude, from the University of Michigan Law School in 2008. Mr. Brooks is admitted to practice in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the State of New York, the State of Delaware, the United States District Courts for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the Southern District of New York, and the Eastern District of New York.
Mr. Brooks serves as a board member or fellow in numerous social justice and philanthropic organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, and Lawyers Without Borders, where he was among a group of judges and preeminent practitioners who traveled to Nairobi, Kenya to foster the Rule of Law and work with the Kenyan judiciary and bar on trial advocacy.
Mr. Brooks has been recognized as a Rising Star in the areas of Business Litigation, Securities Litigation, and Employment & Labor Law by Pennsylvania Super Lawyers.
Justin S. Brooks represents relators in qui tam litigation under the federal and state False Claims Acts and corporate clients in complex commercial and employment litigation.
Neil Sanchez is special agent in charge of the U.S. Department of Education Office of Inspector General's Southern Regional Office.
"Today's settlement is a result of the hard work and effort of the Office of Inspector General and the Department of Justice to protect and maintain the integrity of the Federal student aid programs," Sanchez said. "We will continue to work together to ensure that Federal student aid funds are used as required by law. America's taxpayers and students deserve nothing less."
Paul J. Zwier II is one of the nation's most distinguished professors of advocacy and skills training, providing expert advice on trial strategy, jury analysis, and negotiation and mediation.
Paul Wood, a UPMC spokesman, said at issue in the complaint was compliance with Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services teaching physician regulations and related billing guidance, as well as UPMC's internal surgical policies.
Job Titles:
- Attorney
- Founding Partner
- Partner
- District of Columbia Fellow, Co - Publishes "Pretrial Advocacy
- Founding Member of Guttman
- Founding Member of Guttman, Buschner & Brooks
Attorney Reuben Guttman, who was counsel in the New York and Boston cases, called the conduct involved in these types of claims "egregious," saying the surgeons involved are taking advantage of their patients.
"These practices at teaching hospitals across the country are pervasive, and it's a real problem," Guttman said. "Patients don't know their doctors are serving two masters."
Although the financial settlement in the UPMC case is small in comparison to the hospital system's $24 billion in annual revenue, Guttman said it is still important.
"The money is going to be inconsequential. But it's more you're changing the standard of care," he said. "Every single settlement like this is important because it sheds light on a practice that is pervasive."
Because of this settlement, Guttman said plaintiffs in any medical malpractice cases against UPMC going forward will be able to ask what other cases their doctors were working on at the same time.
"It's going to expose UPMC to a lot of inquiry in medical malpractice cases, and that will drive change," he said.
Reuben Guttman is a founding member of Guttman, Buschner & Brooks PLLC (GBB). His practice involves complex litigation and class actions. He has tried and/or litigated claims involving fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, environmental derelictions, antitrust, business interference and other common law torts or statutory violations.
Reuben Guttman, a partner with Washington, D.C.-based Guttman, Buschner & Brooks, has litigated under the False Claims Act to challenge pharmaceutical marketing practices. Liza Vertinsky is a professor of law at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. Their article "Public-Private Litigation for Health" was published in the Utah Law Review.
District of Columbia Fellow Reuben A. Guttman has co-authored a new book, "Pretrial Advocacy," to be released by the National Institute for Trial Advocacy. (Now available in print and e-book here.) The volume, which was also written by Rutgers Professor J.C. Lore, discusses the "unwritten rules" of pre-trial preparation and grapples with the challenges of efficiently developing cases that can stand up to jury scrutiny in the face of overflowing demand, even though 90% of civil cases never make it to trial.
Reuben Guttman | Guttman, Buschner and Brooks PLLC
Reuben Guttman is a founding member of Guttman, Buschner and Brooks PLLC. His practice involves complex litigation and class actions. He has represented clients in claims brought under the Federal False Claims Act, securities laws, the Price Anderson Act, Department of Energy statutes and regulations, the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN), Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) and various employment discrimination, labor and environmental statutes. He has also tried and/or litigated claims involving fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, antitrust, business interference and other common law torts.
The International Business Times has called Mr. Guttman "one of the world's most prominent whistleblower attorneys." He has served as counsel in some of the largest recoveries under the False Claims Act. Mr. Guttman served as lead counsel in a series of cases resulting in the recovery of more than $30 million under the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act. Mr. Guttman is the author and/or editor of numerous articles, book chapters, and technical publications.
In addition to his writings, Mr. Guttman has testified before committees of the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate on the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act (AHERA). Mr. Guttman earned his law degree at Emory University School of Law, where he has been a Senior Fellow and Adjunct Professor at the Emory University School of Law Center for Advocacy and Dispute Resolution and has been a Team Leader for the school's Trial Techniques Program. He is a faculty member of the National Institute for Trial Advocacy and Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.
He is currently a Professional Lecturer at the American University School of Public Affairs where he teaches Equal Protection/Constitutional Law. He is co-author of the text Pretrial Advocacy (NITA/Wolters-Kluwer 2021 with Professor JC Lore) and he has published more than 100 articles.
Mr. Guttman has litigated complex cases involving fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, environmental derelictions, antitrust, torts or statutory violations.
Job Titles:
- Founding Partner
- Founding Member of Guttman
- Founding Member of Guttman, Buschner & Brooks
- President - Elect of the Trial Lawyers Association of Metropolitan Washington
Traci L. Buschner is a founding member of Guttman, Buschner & Brooks PLLC. A former state prosecutor, Ms. Buschner has spent nearly 30 years representing plaintiffs in complex litigation ranging from class actions to government contract fraud. She has been involved in multi-million dollar recoveries on behalf of workers asserting claims under numerous federal statutes and has handled some of the largest successful False Claims Act actions, bringing billions of dollars to the United States Government. Examples of Ms. Buschner's work include representing:
Ms. Buschner is the President-Elect of the Trial Lawyers Association of Metropolitan Washington, D.C. (TLA-DC) and the Chair of the Miami University's Pre-Law Alumni Board. She has also served as a faculty member (2011, 2012,2014 and 2016) for Emory University Law School's Trial Techniques Program.
Traci L. Buschner | Guttman, Buschner & Brooks PLLC.
Traci L. Buschner is a founding member of Guttman, Buschner & Brooks PLLC. A former state prosecutor, Ms. Buschner has spent over 20 years representing plaintiffs in complex litigation ranging from class actions to government contract fraud. She has been involved in multi-million dollar recoveries on behalf of workers asserting claims under numerous federal statutes and has handled some of the largest successful False Claims Act actions, bringing billions of dollars to the United States Government. Examples of Ms. Buschner's work include representing:
The lead whistleblower, Meredith McCoyd, in a False Claims Act case
against Abbott Laboratories, resulting in a settlement of over $1.5 billion. The case involved Abbott's illegal efforts to promote an anti-seizure medication, Depakote, through off-label marketing, misbranding and paying physicians to write prescriptions. The settlement was one of the largest recoveries by the United States Government under the False Claims Act against a pharmaceutical company
The lead whistleblowers in a False Claims Act case against Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of Pfizer, resulting in a $257.4 million settlement. The settlement agreement outlined the company's efforts - for over a decade - to unlawfully market a powerful immunosuppressant drug Rapamune, used to treat patients who have undergone kidney transplants
A former sales manager in a False Claims Act case against Amgen, Inc., culminating in a settlement of $24.9 million . The settlement agreement charged that Amgen paid kickbacks, in the guise of rebates, to long-term care pharmacies in exchange for switching nursing home patients from a competitor drug to Aranesp and encouraged pharmacists to recommend the drug for uses outside the drug's FDA label
A nursing professional and former Sales Manager in a False Claims Act case resulting in a $1.04 billion settlement against GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). The relator alleged that GSK made false and misleading statements about Advair's safety and efficacy, thus enabling false claims to Medicare, Medicaid, and other reimbursement programs
One of the six main whistleblowers in a False Claims Act case against Pfizer, Inc., which in 2009 resulted in the government's recovery of $2.3 billion
A physician and two nurses in a False Claims Act case against Community Health Systems, Inc. (CHS), which resulted in the Government's recovery of over $98 million related, in part, to unnecessary emergency room admissions at over 100 separate hospitals across the country
A certified professional coder in a False Claims Act case against a suburban New York oncology group, resulting in a $5.5 million dollar recovery based upon admissions of co-pay waiver and up-coding
Prior to joining GBB, she was an attorney with the Washington, D.C. office of one of the nation's largest personal injury and labor firms and also practiced with an Austin, Texas firm where she represented victims of asbestos exposure.
Ms. Buschner has represented some of the nation's largest labor unions and their members. On behalf of the Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers International Union (OCAW), AFL-CIO, Ms. Buschner was actively involved in environmental litigation which led to Secretary of Energy, William Richardson, canceling a project to recycle radioactive nickel at the Oak Ridge, Tennessee K-25 Nuclear Weapons Complex. The documentation of her efforts to expose faulty government contracting at Department of Energy Nuclear weapons sites was published in The Environmental Forum, Volume 17, No. 6, November/December 2000.
Ms. Buschner has been recognized for several years, by Washingtonian Magazine, as a top Whistleblower Lawyer. Her work on the Abbott False Claims Act case at Grant & Eisenhofer was featured in The National Law Journal, "Plaintiffs' Hot List" (2011-2012).
Ms. Buschner currently serves on the Executive Committee of the Trial Lawyers Association of Metropolitan Washington, D.C. (TLA-DC) as the Treasurer and Miami University's Pre-Law Alumni Board. She has also served as a faculty member (2011, 2012,2014 and 2016) for Emory University Law School's Trial Techniques Program.
Ms. Buschner graduated from Miami University in 1990, and received her J.D. from the University of Louisville in 1995. She is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia; the Commonwealth of Kentucky; the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia; the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky; the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Ms. Buschner has co-authored two articles with colleague Reuben A. Guttman: "Patients Suffer from Drug Industry's Chronic Greed," Wall Street Journal MarketWatch (August 7, 2013) and "Taking the Next Step in Pharma Fraud," American Constitution Society Blog (May 8, 2012).
A former state prosecutor, Traci Buschner has spent nearly 30 years representing plaintiffs in complex litigation ranging from class actions to government contract fraud.
Job Titles:
- City Clerk of the Council