Whistleblower Lawyer & Attorney : National Whistleblower Legal Defense and Education Fund : Whistlebower Protection, Fraud Claims : Washington DC

The National Whistleblower Legal Defense and Education Fund is a public interest law firm which works in conjunction with the National Whistleblower Center. The Fund’s legal cases are managed by four attorney-trustees.

Attorney-Trustees

Since 1984, Mr. Kohn has successfully represented whistleblowers in numerous cases (both at trial and on appeal), has testified in Congress on behalf of whistleblower reforms and worked directly with the staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee on drafting the Sarbanes-Oxley corporate whistleblower protections. He has successfully litigated many of the nation’s landmark precedents establishing whistleblower rights and has represented whistleblowers in numeorus high-profile cases, including the O.J. Simpson murder case, the World Trade Center bombing cases, the Oklahoma City bombing case and the Linda Tripp-Privacy Act case.

Practice Areas

• False Claims Act/Qui Tam
• Whistleblower Litigation
• Retalitory Discharge

Bar Admissions

• 1985, Pennsylvania (Inactive)
• 1986, New Jersey (inactive)
• 1987, District of Columbia
• Admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court and the Courts of Appeal for the First, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, District of Columbia and Federal Courts of Appeal

• Boston University, B.A., 1979, magna cum laude
• Brown University, M.A., 1981
• Northeastern University School of Law, J.D., 1984

Mr. Kohn is a nationally recognized litigator, focusing on whistleblower protection and False Claims Act/qui tam claims. He served as lead council in the case of Georgia Power Co. v. USDOL (11th Cir. 2002) in which a high-level nuclear whistleblower was awarded reinstatement and $4.5 million in damages, as well as Jayko v. Ohio Environmental Protection Agency ( Labor ALJ 2000), in which a whistleblower who discovered that several school buildings had been built on a “cancer cluster” was ordered reinstated into his job and awarded substantial damages.

Practice Areas

• False Claims Act/Qui Tam Litigation
• Whistleblower Litigation
• Retaliatory Discharge

Bar Admissions

• 1985, Pennsylvania (inactive)
• 1986, New Jersey (inactive)
• 1990, District of Columbia
• U.S. Supreme Court
  

Education

• Rutgers University, B.S., 1979
• Antioch School of Law, J.D., 1985

Mr. Colapinto is a nationally recognized whistleblower advocate, with an expertise in government fraud and False Claims Act qui tam cases as well as whistleblower protection laws. He represented one of the whistleblowers who reported allegations of massive health care fraud by Bristol Myers Squibb Co., resulting in a $515 million recovery for the taxpayers in a settlement under the False Claims Act. He also successfully litigated several whistleblower cases and won the first precedent for a hostile work environment under the federal environmental whistleblower protection statutes.

• False Claims Act/Qui Tam Litigation
• Whistleblower Litigation
• Privacy Law
• Freedom of Information

• 1988, Massachusetts
• 1989, District of Columbia

• Boston University, B.A., 1984
• Antioch School of Law, J.D., 1987

Ms. Wilmoth has been an instrumental figure in defending whistleblower rights in complex NRC licensing and enforcement proceedings and EPA whistleblowers before the DOL. As the first public interest fellow hired by the National Whistleblower Center in 1994, she has developed expertise in environmental/nuclear whistleblower law. Ms. Wilmoth also serves as Program Director of the National Whistleblower Center.

Practice Areas

• Environmental/Nuclear Whistleblowers
• False Claims/Qui Tam

• 1994, Pennsylvania (inactive)
• 1996, District of Columbia

• George Mason University, B.A., 1989
• Franklin Pierce Law Center, J.D., 1992

Key Program Staff

Ms. Kohn is the Deputy Director of the Fund, responsible for managing the Fund’s national Attorney Referral Service (ARS), law clerk program and Continuing Legal Education seminars. Ms. Kohn also serves as the Deputy Director of the National Whistleblower Center, responsible for its highly respected nation-wide public interest student internship program. The program brings over 60 students each year to Washington, D.C., to work on a one-on-one basis with experienced attorneys in the field of whistleblower law and advocacy. She is also the administrator of the National Whistleblower Center’s Speakers’ Bureau.

Education

• Stockton State College, B.A.
• District of Columbia School of Law, J.D.

Mr. Munter is the staff attorney responsible for managing the Fund’s “Report Fraud Now” program. He specializes in False Claims Act and qui tam litigation on behalf of whistleblowers. In 2005, he successfully appealed the case of Andrewes v. U.S. INS, 141 Fed.Appx. 98 before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit.

Practice Areas

• False Claims Act/Qui Tam
• Whistleblower Litigation

• 1995, Massachusetts
• 2004, District of Columbia

• McGill University, B.A. 1985
• Massachusetts School of Law, J.D., 1994

Mr. Chriswell is the Editor-in-Chief of the Whistleblower Protection Blog. He also serves as the Director of Public Affairs of the National Whistleblower Center, responsible for the Center’s “Action Network.” This Network rallies public support for whistleblower rights and key legislative action on behalf of whistleblowers. A graduate of the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where he earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science with a concentration in Pre-Law, Mr. Chriswell successfully completed the Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars: Law and Criminal Justice program, with a focus on whistleblower advocacy.