John R. Phillips
(Washington, D.C.)

The Wall Street Journal and the National Law Journal have called John "the nation's premier whistleblower attorney." The National Law Journal also included him in its two most recent lists of the "100 most influential lawyers in America."

John, a partner with the firm, worked closely with Congress to revise and strengthen the False Claims Act in 1986 after his research showed the Civil War law held great potential for fighting fraud against the government.

Since the law was amended, John has won a number of qui tam lawsuits brought by whistleblowers, including many Medicare fraud and defense contractor fraud cases. Qui tam lawsuits brought by him and his firm have resulted in civil and criminal recoveries for the U.S. Treasury totaling more than $2 billion.

One of John’s earliest successes in representing whistleblowers was a qui tam lawsuit against a large medical testing laboratory for Medicare billing fraud. The company paid $111 million to settle the case, and the company’s president was sent to prison for Medicare fraud. As a result of that qui tam case, the federal government initiated "LabScam" to investigate billing practices at other independent medical testing labs. Those labs have paid more than $800 million to settle false claim charges brought by whistleblowers and the government.

A nationally recognized authority on whistleblower cases, John is a frequent speaker at conferences on the False Claims Act and qui tam lawsuits. He also has co-authored several articles about whistleblowing and the False Claims Act.

John has a long history of involvement in public interest law. He graduated in 1969 from the University of California School of Law (Boalt Hall), where he was an editor of the California Law Review. For the next two years, he was an associate at the Los Angeles law firm of O'Melveny & Myers.

In 1971, he co-founded the Center for Law in the Public Interest in Los Angeles, which focused on environmental, civil rights, corporate fraud and other issues. He served as its co-director for 17 years before starting his own firm in 1988. From 1988 to 1993, John was an appointed member of the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference. In 1997, he was appointed by President Clinton to the President's Commission on White House Fellowships.

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