SCHILLING LAW - Key Persons

Kathryn M. Schilling is an accomplished whistleblower attorney who brings unique and extensive experience to her whistleblower clients. Ms. Schilling's specialized practice is devoted to representing whistleblowers who assist the U.S. Government in pursuing fraud cases involving healthcare fraud, federal grant fraud, government contractor fraud, and mortgage fraud, as well as tax fraud and securities laws violations. Ms. Schilling prides herself on serving her clients as both a compassionate counselor and fierce advocate during the often long and grueling whistleblower reward process under the False Claims Act and the IRS and SEC Whistleblower Reward Programs. Notably, Ms. Schilling is one of only a few distinguished attorneys to have achieved financial rewards for her clients under each of these three government reward programs. Ms. Schilling has represented whistleblowers in many significant victories that have returned hundreds of millions of dollars to the United States Treasury. In 2016, Ms. Schilling represented the Chief Compliance Officer in the record-breaking $623 million settlement involving Olympus Corp. of the Americas. The Olympus settlement was a historic achievement under the False Claims Act and remains the largest FCA settlement ever by a medical device manufacturer and the largest total amount paid in U.S. history for violations of the Anti-Kickback Statute. Ms. Schilling also served as lead counsel for the relators in the noteworthy $85 million mortgage fraud settlement involving Fifth Third Bank that involved both appraisal fraud and Fifth Third's failure to self-report defective mortgage loans. Most recently, Ms. Schilling served as local counsel on a $22.8 million settlement of a False Claims Act case involving a multinational industrial engineering company's avoidance of U.S. customs duties. The U.S. Government settled this important case in 2020. Ms. Schilling also has a proven track record of successfully representing many whistleblowers, both domestically and abroad, under both the IRS and SEC Whistleblower Reward programs. These cases have resulted in significant awards under these programs to Ms. Schilling's whistleblower clients, including the attainment of exceedingly rare maximum award percentages and the recovery of over $86 million in collected proceeds under the IRS Whistleblower Program. Whistleblower anonymity is a key protection afforded in most cases by the SEC and IRS Whistleblower Programs, and the whistleblowers in those cases have chosen to remain anonymous. Before she began representing whistleblower clients, Ms. Schilling was a partner in a prestigious litigation firm where she played a key role in advising high profile clients and litigating complex commercial matters involving rights and obligations under various statutes including the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in connection with employment issues such as gender, age, race and disability-based discrimination, and associated retaliation claims. Ms. Schilling has been selected as a "Pennsylvania Super Lawyer" every year from 2012 to 2024. Prior to that, Ms. Schilling was named a "Pennsylvania Rising Star" during the years 2004-2011. A program of Thomson Reuters, Pennsylvania Super Lawyers is a rating service of outstanding lawyers who, through a peer review and independent research process, have been identified as attaining a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. Only the top 5 percent of Pennsylvania's 50,000 lawyers and the top 2.5 percent of up-and-coming Pennsylvania lawyers are named to the Super Lawyers and Rising Stars lists.