POSTPONED - Whistleblower Law Symposium

Ms. Neeli Ben-David Related Seminars and Products

US Attorneys Office

Neeli Ben-David currently serves as the Chief of the Civil Division as well as Health Care Fraud Coordinator and eLitigation Coordinator with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia.  During her tenure at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, she has received the Director’s Award for Contributions that Enhance the Missions of the Executive Office for the United States Attorneys and United States Attorneys’ Offices, and a Special Act Award from the Executive Office for the United States Attorney for work as co-chair of the eLitigation Working Group, as well as the U.S. Attorney’s Award in 2011, 2013 and 2017.

Prior to coming to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Neeli was with the firm of Bondurant, Mixson & Elmore and, before then, served as a law clerk to the Honorable John G. Heyburn, II, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky.  She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, cum laude.  While there, she served on the Law Review and Moot Court Board.  She received her bachelor’s degree from the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland with general and departmental honors.

Mr. Ryan Karim Buchanan Related Seminars and Products

US Attorneys Office

Ryan K. Buchanan is the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia. Mr. Buchanan was nominated by President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. on November 15, 2021, and confirmed by the U.S. Senate on April 27, 2022. 

As the chief federal law enforcement official in the Northern District of Georgia, U.S. Attorney Buchanan oversees the investigation and litigation of all criminal and civil cases brought in the district on behalf of the United States. He leads an office of approximately 250 prosecutors, civil litigators, and support personnel in its mission to enforce federal criminal law, advocate for the victims of crimes, and represent the United States' interests in federal court-including in matters involving domestic and international terrorism, organized crime, gang violence, public corruption, cybercrime, narcotics trafficking, civil rights violations, whistleblower actions, and financial and healthcare fraud. The district serves over seven million people. 

Mr. Buchanan serves on the Attorney General's Advisory Committee (AGAC), a select group of United States Attorneys who advise the Attorney General on matters of policy, procedure, and management. Specifically, Mr. Buchanan serves as Vice-Chair of the AGAC's Terrorism and National Security Subcommittee and leads the Foreign Influence and Nation-State Threats Working Group. Mr. Buchanan also serves on the AGAC's Office, Management, and Budget Subcommittee.
 
Mr. Buchanan joined the Department of Justice in 2010. From 2010 to 2013, Mr. Buchanan served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Northern District of Alabama. Since 2013, he has served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Northern District of Georgia, where he has also served as the National Security and Anti-Terrorism Council Coordinator and as Deputy Chief of the Violent Crime and National Security Section. 

As a federal prosecutor, Buchanan has prosecuted cases involving the support of foreign terrorist organizations and attempts by would-be domestic terrorists to acquire weapons of mass destruction. He has also prosecuted and supervised cases involving violent crimes such as armed robbery, kidnapping, and carjacking; crimes involving the exploitation of children via child pornography production and distribution; and organized crime cases involving national gangs.
 
Prior to joining the Department of Justice, Mr. Buchanan was in private practice at McGuireWoods LLP. He also served as a law clerk to Judge Inge P. Johnson of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. Mr. Buchanan received his J.D. from Vanderbilt University Law School in 2005 and his B.S. from Samford University in 2001. 

Mr. Peter Decklin Leary Related Seminars and Products

Troutman Pepper Locke

Peter D. Leary was sworn in on December 12, 2022, as the 17th presidentially appointed U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia. President Joe Biden nominated Mr. Leary on November 14, 2022, and the U.S. Senate confirmed his nomination on December 6, 2022. Prior to receiving the presidential nomination, Mr. Leary served as the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia in acting and then interim capacities - appointed by order of Attorney General Merrick B. Garland and then by Chief District Judge Marc T. Treadwell - since December 2020.

Mr. Leary serves on two Attorney General Advisory Committee of U.S. Attorneys (AGAC) subcommittees: Violent Crime and Cyber and Intellectual Property. Mr. Leary has served the citizens of the Middle District of Georgia as a prosecutor since 2012. Since joining the United States Attorney's Office (USAO), he has worked as the office's Anti-Terrorism Advisory Council (ATAC) coordinator, Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property (CHIP) prosecutor, National Security Cyber Specialist (NSCS), and as the First Assistant U.S. Attorney.

In 2021, along with other members of the U.S. Attorney's Office, he received an Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys (EOUSA) Director's Award for Superior Performance in Prevention and Reentry Activities for work on a campaign aimed at educating youth about gun
possession: www.armedwithknowledge.com. In 2019, he received the Anti-Defamation League's SHIELD award with FBI and Department of Justice partners, and he shared the 2018 International Association of Chiefs of Police/Thomson Reuters Award for Excellence in Criminal Investigation with the FBI and GBI.

As U.S. Attorney, Mr. Leary is the top-ranking federal law enforcement official in the Middle District of Georgia, which covers 70 of Georgia's 159 counties, includes Albany, Athens, Columbus, Macon and Valdosta, and has a population of approximately 2,045,000 people. The office is responsible for prosecuting federal crimes in the district, including crimes related to terrorism, public corruption, child exploitation, fraud, firearms, illegal gangs and narcotics. The office also defends the United States in civil cases and collects debts owed to the United States.

Raised in Watkinsville, Georgia, and a graduate of Athens Academy in Athens, Georgia, Mr. Leary received his B.A. and J.D. from University of Virginia, where he was a Jefferson Scholar. After law school, Mr. Leary clerked for U.S. District Judge Hugh Lawson of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia. Following his clerkship, Mr. Leary joined the Federal Programs Branch of the DOJ through its Honors Program, where he worked extensively with the Intelligence Community.

Mr. Michael A. Sullivan Related Seminars and Products

Finch McCranie LLP

Michael A. Sullivan is a former US federal prosecutor with 35+ years of experience. In addition to advising clients on compliance and performing internal investigations, he represents qui tam whistleblowers in cases under the False Claims Act, as well as SEC Whistleblowers, FCPA Whistleblowers, CFTC Whistleblowers, and IRS Whistleblowers. 

He also continues to successfully try cases in complex civil litigation of many types. He also served as Counsel to the Volkswagen AG Independent Compliance Monitor and Auditor, and coordinated with counsel across the globe to satisfy legal requirements of countries in Europe, Asia, North America, and South America. 

He also advises international and domestic clients on compliance with US laws, and he conducts and supervises internal investigations for clients with business integrity issues. He has also served as a Special Master appointed by a US District Court. 

See https://www.finchmccranie.com/michael-a-sullivan.html. 

Since the late 1980s, he has worked with the False Claims Act. He represents those who report fraud against the government or against investors. He has helped draft state versions of the False Claims Act. He is one of the first lawyers to represent clients in the IRS Whistleblower Program. 

When Congress sought to create a new SEC Whistleblower program in 2010, Senate Banking Committee representatives contacted Mr. Sullivan to discuss what an effective whistleblower program must include. He has also discussed the proposed rules for the SEC and CFTC Whistleblower programs with the Chairmen and senior staff of both agencies. The final rules issued by both the SEC and CFTC incorporated important changes that he advocated. Mr. Sullivan's practice now includes representing whistleblowers in SEC Whistleblower and CFTC Whistleblower claims, including FCPA whistleblowers reporting foreign bribery and accounting violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. 

Mr. Sullivan represented Relators in some of the most significant health care fraud qui tam recoveries in recent years, including (1) the $465 million settlement by Mylan, Inc. in 2017 for erroneously classifying its patented, brand name drug EpiPen as a generic drug to avoid its obligation to pay higher Medicaid rebates; and (2) the groundbreaking case that authorized use of statistical sampling to prove elements of FCA liability and damages, United States ex rel. Martin v. Life Care Centers of America, Inc. (E.D. TN), which in 2016 produced the largest health care fraud settlement in history against a skilled nursing facility chain.

His trial victories include representing a major multinational corporation in uncovering a commercial bribery and kickback scheme, and then as lead counsel winning a jury verdict of eight figures against those who perpetrated it.

Mr. Sullivan is a 1984 graduate of Vanderbilt Law School, where he was Senior Articles Editor of the Vanderbilt Law Review, and was selected for Order of the Coif. He clerked for U.S. District Judge Marvin H. Shoob in the Northern District of Georgia. He also served as a federal prosecutor in the Independent Counsel investigation of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which included the prosecution of former Secretary of the Interior James Watt.

Ms. Emily Cook Ward Related Seminars and Products

Continuum Legal Group LLP

Emily C. Ward is a Partner in Smith Gambrell & Russell's Atlanta office who’s practice concentrates on white-collar defense, government investigations, and civil litigation including environmental, business, and healthcare litigation, as well as administrative and regulatory matters.

Ms. Ward regularly represents defendants in environmental, cybersecurity, public corruption, and tax fraud investigations, with recent successes resulting in no indictments being filed or substantially reduced penalties being negotiated. She obtained a defense verdict in a multi-day arbitration for healthcare practice that had been charged with violating various contractual provisions regarding medical billing, physician recruitment, and restrictive covenants. Ms. Ward also received a defense verdict for parents who had been placed on the child abuse registry after seeking medical treatment for their accidentally injured child. Ms. Ward often defends medical professionals before state medical, dental, nursing, and health insurance boards to prevent disciplinary actions from being imposed. She also has represented many students accused of academic, behavioral, and other infractions and helped them resolve the situation with the administrative and academic conduct boards.

Ms. Ward is active in multiple bar associations including the American Bar Association, State Bar of Georgia, and Atlanta Bar Association. She currently serves as Secretary and is on the Executive Committee of the Atlanta Bar Association. Ms. Ward also recently served as Chair of the Atlanta Bar Association’s Criminal Law Section in 2021 and Women in the Profession Section in 2019.

Ms. Ward has been recognized in Chambers USA as an Up and Coming attorney in Litigation White-Collar Crime & Government Investigations, in multiple categories by Best Lawyers as One to Watch, and Georgia Super Lawyers as a Rising Star, among others. She also was recognized as the University of Georgia’s Young Alumnae of Excellence in 2022 and was the inaugural recipient of the Catherine M. O’Neil Mentoring Award given by the Women’s White Collar Defense Association in recognition of her as an outstanding junior member of the WWCDA.

Ms. Ward received her undergraduate degree from the University of Miami and her J.D. from the University of Georgia School of Law.

Sarah Poppy Alexander Related Seminars and Products

Constantine Cannon LLP

Poppy Alexander is a partner in Constantine Cannon’s San Francisco office. She represents whistleblowers and government entities in qui tam lawsuits, as well as under the various agency whistleblower programs including those administered by the Internal Revenue Service, Securities and Exchange Commission, FinCEN, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and Department of Transportation.  Poppy’s practice focuses on issues of international corruption and financial misconduct, with a specialty in the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and money laundering cases.  She writes and speaks regularly about emerging topics in financial fraud, including sanctions violations, SPACs, and cryptocurrency.  

Neil V. Getnick Related Seminars and Products

Getnick & Getnick, NYC

Mark W. Pugsley Related Seminars and Products

Pugsley Wood LLP (Salt Lake City)

Michael A. Filoromo III Related Seminars and Products

Katz Banks Kumin

Michael Filoromo joined Katz Banks Kumin LLP in 2008 and now manages its Philadelphia office. A leading employment attorney, Mr. Filoromo regularly represents whistleblowers in the pharmaceutical, healthcare, financial, aviation, and energy industries in bringing retaliation claims under federal and state whistleblower laws.  Mr. Filoromo also has secured successful outcomes for clients through whistleblower reward programs.  He secured for a client one of the first 50 awards issued pursuant to the SEC Whistleblower Program, and he has successfully represented relators in qui tam actions under federal and state False Claims Acts.

Mr. Filoromo has been recognized by multiple outlets for his success in whistleblower and employment law, including Best Lawyers in America, Super Lawyers, Lawdragon, and the Philadelphia Business Journal. In addition to his litigation work, Mr. Filoromo has served since 2020 as the President of the Eastern Pennsylvania Chapter of the National Employment Lawyers Association, where he leads an organization of 85 plaintiff-side employment attorneys. Additionally, Mr. Filoromo serves as the Employee Co-Chair of the Outreach to New and Young Lawyers Committee of the ABA’s Labor and Employment Section.  Mr. Filoromo is the co-author of the “SEC Whistleblower Practice Guide” and the “CFTC Whistleblower Practice Guide,” and he regularly publishes and speaks on trends and topics in whistleblower law.