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UK Whistleblower Solicitor Michael Kohn

Michael D. Kohn

Founding Partner
KKC LLP

Michael is nationally recognized as a leading whistleblower attorney, setting numerous legal precedents.

Doctor of Jurisprudence
Antioch School of Law 85′

Bachelor of Science
B.S. Rutgers University 79′

State Bar
District of Columbia
New Jersey, 1986 (inactive)

Federal Bar
U.S. Supreme Court
U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

Books

  • Whistleblower Law: A Guide to Legal Protections for Corporate Employees (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004) (co-authored with Michael Kohn and Stephen M, Kohn). The Guide was highly praised by the two principle co-sponsors of the Sarbanes-Oxley corporate whistleblower law.
  • The Labor Lawyer’s Guide to the Rights and Responsibilities of Employee Whistleblowers (Quorum Books, 1988) (co-authored with Stephen Kohn).

Law Review and Scholarly Articles

  • An Overview of Federal and State Whistleblower Protection, 4 Antioch Law Journal 99 (Summer, 1986) (co-author).
  • Conscientious Objection: A Constitutional Right, 21 New England Law Review 545 (1986) (co-author, the Hon. Frederick L. Brown, Associate Justice, Massachusetts Court of Appeals and Stephen Kohn).
  • Human Rights and Freedom of Conscience in Administrative Law: A Critique of the Fugitive Slave Act and the Selective Service Act Through Use of the Liberty Fact Doctrine, 61 University of Detroit Journal of Urban Law 177 (Winter, 1984) (co-author, the Hon. Frederick L. Brown, Associate Justice, Massachusetts Court of Appeals).

Michael D. Kohn

Michael D. Kohn is nationally recognized as a leading whistleblower attorney. A founding partner of Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto, the first law firm exclusively dedicated to representing whistleblowers, Michael has over 30 years of experience advocating for whistleblowers before courts and federal agencies.

Michael specializes in False Claims Act qui tam cases as well as whistleblower award cases before the SEC, CFTC and IRS. In addition to obtaining multi-million dollar awards for his clients, Kohn has argued multiple precedent-setting cases, furthering protections for whistleblowers across the nation.

In a qui tam whistleblower case against government contractor KBR, Michael unearthed how KBR systematically silenced employees with knowledge of kickbacks from going to the federal government as a result of forcing them to execute restrictive NDAs. Having unearthed these facts, Michael obtained an SEC ruling finding the use of such NDAs unlawful and convinced the SEC to fine KBR. This precedent-setting SEC ruling explicitly relied on the case law Michael put in place decades earlier in the case of whistleblower Joe Macktal.

Other Major Achievements

In another qui tam case, Michael held the surety industry accountable under the False Claims Act. Michael represented whistleblower Andrew Scollick who blew the whistle on a multi-million dollar scheme to illegally obtain Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) set-aside contracts. The case established for the first time that construction bonding companies could be held liable for defrauding the government if they had reason to know the entity they were bonding was not actually majority-owned and controlled by a service-disabled veteran.

Michael also represented False Claims Act whistleblower James Connolly and successfully used the California False Claims Act to hold the multinational bank and financial services company HSBC accountable for overcharging the California Public Employees Retirement System in foreign currency trading. The case settled for a $7 million payment to California and Michael secured a $1.12 million for Connolly.

Citing to Michael’s litigation successes, the National Law Journal ranked KKC as one of the top “25 Litigation Firms” in the nation representing plaintiffs. Michael has also repeatedly earned honors such as Washingtonian Top Lawyers, LawDragon 500 Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyers, and Martindale-Hubbell’s AV Preeminent rating.

In addition to his many successes in qui tam and whistleblower award cases, Michael has successfully represented whistleblowers in high-profile retaliation cases, obtaining record settlements and establishing important legal precedents. For example, Michael represented famed whistleblower Bunny Greenhouse, He presented her allegations of contract fraud committed by Army generals and high-level civil servants to steer what was at the time the largest war contract in history to KBR. The allegations he spelled out caused the Army to reverse its decision to demote. Greenhouse and Michael went on to ultimately obtain one of the largest federal employee whistleblower settlement awards for his client.

Michael’s most recent litigation success was a precedent-setting whistleblower retaliation case against the United States Army Corps of Engineers. Representing whistleblower Dr. Toni Savage, Michael successfully argued for the right of federal whistleblowers to bring hostile work environment claims against the government.