The Lawyers

Reuben A. Guttman

Reuben A. Guttman
Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman LLP
1920 L Street, N.W., Suite 400
Washington, D.C. 20036
Telephone: (202) 783-6091
Facsimile: (202) 783-6088
rguttman@whistleblowerlaws.com

New York Office:
1 Pennsylvania Plaza
New York, NY 10119
(212) 594-5309
(212) 868-1229

Mr. Guttman's practice involves complex litigation and class actions. He has represented clients in claims brought under the Federal False Claims Act, the Price Anderson Act, Department of Energy (DOE) statutes and regulations, the WARN Act, RICO, and various employment discrimination, labor and environmental statutes. He has also litigated claims involving fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, antitrust, business interference, and other common law torts.

Mr. Guttman has published in the areas of the False Claims Act, labor, and environmental law. He is the co-author, with Ann Lugbill, of "The False Claims Act: Holding Employers Accountable for Workplace Rights," Employee Rights Quarterly (Aspen, Autumn 2000). This article describes how the False Claims Act can be a tool in the arsenal to use against government contractor employers who fail to abide by the labor, environmental, and other provisions of government contract requirements.

Mr. Guttman has appeared on ABC National News and CNN, and has been quoted in major publications, including the Wall Street Journal and national wire services.

Mr. Guttman is a founding member of the American Trial Lawyers Association (ATLA) Qui Tam Litigation Committee and was a featured speaker on the False Claims Act at the ATLA July 2001 national conference in Montreal, Canada. He is also an active participant in the AFL-CIO's Lawyers Coordinating Committee (LCC).

Mr. Guttman is also an author and editor of scholarly works. He has served a consulting editor for Warren, Gorham & Lamont (New York, NY), and Technomics Publishing (Basil, Switzerland, Lancaster, PA). He is also a chapter author and Advisory Board Member for Environmental Management in Healthcare Facilities a treatise published by the W.B. Saunders Company (1998). He has the following publications to his credit:

• "The False Claims Act: Holding Employers Accountable for Workplace Rights," Employee Rights Quarterly (Aspen, Autumn 2000) (with Reuben A. Guttman).
• Co-Author, "The Asbestos Model: Labor and Citizen Groups and a Multipronged Approach to Regulatory Change," in Conflict Resolution and Public Policy (edited by Miriam K. Mills, Greenwood Press 1990).
• "At Issue: Should Congress Pass Legislation that would Extend the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act to All Public and Commercial Buildings," Congressional Quarterly Editorial Research Reports, Volume I, No. 9, 1990;
• "EPA Dialogue May Result in Rules for Commercial Buildings," 2 National Journal of Asbestos and Buildings Litigation (November 13, 1990);
• "The Dormant Commerce Clause and Interstate Transportation of Waste," University of Pennsylvania Journal of Resource Management and Technology, June, 1993; and "Supreme Court Upholds Preemptive Powers of OSH Act," Medical Waste, Volume I, No. 4, January, 1993.
   

In addition to his writings, Mr. Guttman has testified on environmental issues before committees of the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate, and in 1992 advised President-elect Clinton's transition team on labor policy. He has been an invited speaker on privatization and procurement issues at conferences sponsored by the United States Department of Energy (Oakland, California, 1997; Denver, Colorado, 1995). He was also invited to speak on employment discrimination by the Houston Regional Office of the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) at its Fall, 1997 Technical Conference in Beaumont, Texas. He has also served as a speaker on employment class actions at a 1999 client labor and employment law seminar in Dallas, Texas sponsored by Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue. He has guest lectured at Swarthmore College, the University of Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins University, and George Washington University. He has served as a Moot Court Judge at the Georgetown and Catholic University Schools of Law.

Mr. Guttman is admitted to practice law in Georgia (1985), the District of Columbia (1988), Pennsylvania (1991), and New Jersey (1991). He is a member of the bars for the United States Court of Appeals for the Third, Fourth and Eleventh Circuits, as well as the District of Columbia. He is a member of the bars of the United States District Courts for the District of Columbia, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Western District of Michigan, and Northern District of Georgia.  Mr. Guttman graduated from the University of Rochester (B.A. 1981) and the Emory University School of Law (J.D. 1985).

Ann Lugbill

Ann Lugbill, Attorney at Law
Bakst Law Building
2406 Auburn Ave.
Cincinnati, OH
513-784-1280
Fax:  513-784-1449
Toll-free:  866-898-5422
alugbill@whistleblowerlaws.com.

Ann Lugbill co-authored the first book for qui tam whistleblowers and their lawyers. She has represented more than 30 whistleblowers in qui tam cases, beginning in 1984 with Jack Gravitt, a pioneer whistleblower whose experiences became part of the False Claims Act's legislative history. These qui tam cases resulted in total recoveries exceeding $500 million. Thus, attorneys nationwide consult with her on their cases.

Ms. Lugbill worked for the U.S. Department of Labor after law school and then went into private practice, focusing on False Claims Act, whistleblower, civil rights, employment discrimination, class action, consumer, and securities cases. Since 1986, Martindale-Hubbell's lawyer directory has rated her "AV," its highest rating.

CBS "60 Minutes" featured Ms. Lugbill's successful representation of a qui tam whistleblower whose False Claims Act suit alleged that his former employer violated the Buy American Act by selling Japanese machine tools to the Government, mislabeling them "Made in the U.S.A."  In 1995, Cincinnati magazine's cover featured her as one of the "Best Lawyers in Cincinnati."

Ms. Lugbill has worked to pass new whistleblower laws, including the Ohio Whistleblower Act and Cincinnati, Ohio's innovative "Right to Know" toxic and hazardous substance disclosure law. She helped spur statutory anti-retaliation protections for Ohio health care workers reporting inadequate patient care.

Ann Lugbill co-authored two books:

• False Claims Act: Whistleblower Litigation (Michie 1994, LEXIS 2d Ed. 1999).
• Representing the Terminated Employee in Ohio (Anderson 1990, 1997, Supp. 2001).

She has also written or co-authored these legal articles:

• Causes of Action, 2d (West, 2003), False Claims Act, 3730(h) (pending, with H. Vincent McNight and Thomas R. Grande).
• "The False Claims Act: Holding Employers Accountable for Workplace Rights," Employee Rights Quarterly (Aspen, Autumn 2000) (with Reuben A. Guttman).
• "Attorneys Fee Awards," & "The False Claims Act," Litigating Wrongful Discharge Claims, ed. Paul Tobias, Esq. (West, 1987 and annual updates thereafter).
• "Sex Discrimination in Employment," "Sex Discrimination in Education," Ohio Legal Rights Handbook: With Emphasis on Women's Issues Task Force on Gender Fairness (Ohio State Bar Association and Supreme Court of Ohio,1993).
• "Employee Rights: The 'Employment At Will Doctrine' is Eroding," Ohio Trial (Fall 1991).

Ms. Lugbill is a frequent guest speaker on False Claims Act, whistleblower, employment, civil procedure, attorneys fees, and ethics laws, including:

• American Bar Association, Washington, D.C., 2003, "False Claims Act Whistleblower Litigation."
• Ohio State Bar Association, 2002, Midwest Labor Law Conference, "Ethics."
• American Bar Association, Washington, D.C., 2000, "False Claims Act Procurement Fraud."
• American Trial Lawyers Association Annual Conference, Montreal, Canada, 2001. "History and Overview of the False Claims Act."
• Cincinnati (Ohio) Bar Association, Bench-Bar Conference, 1998, "Pretrial Practice/Discovery in Criminal/Civil Litigation in the Federal Courts."
• Cincinnati (Ohio) Bar Association, 2001, "Practical Professionalism and Ethics, What They Don't Teach You in Law School," Presentation on "Attorney Client Relationship."
• Cleveland Employment Lawyers Association, 2001, "False Claims Act and Whistleblower Cases."
• Hamilton County (Ohio) Trial Lawyers Association, 1999, "Legal Ethics."
• Mealey's Publications, Pentagon City, Virginia, 2001, "Litigating Whistleblower Cases Under the Qui Tam Provisions of the False Claims Act."
• National Employment Lawyers Association Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana, 1999, "False Claims Act Litigation".
• Ohio Employment Lawyers Association, 2000, "Professionalism."
• United Nations Women's Conference, University of Cincinnati College of Law, 1996, "The Workplace Environment."

The courts have published more than 30 opinions in Ms. Lugbill's cases, involving the False Claims Act, worker rights, attorney misconduct, and securities law. She has written amicus ("friend of the court") briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and Ohio Supreme Court.

Ms. Lugbill actively participates in the National Employment Lawyers Whistleblower Committee and the American Trial Lawyers Association (ATLA)'s Qui Tam Litigation Group and Employment Law Section. In 1997, she was appointed to the Ohio State Board for Certification of Specialists in Labor and Employment Law, which determines qualifications for legal experts in labor and employment law, including whistleblower law. An Ohio Employment Lawyers Association officer for over a decade, she is President of the Cincinnati Bar's Grievance Committee, authorized by the Ohio Supreme Court to enforce lawyers' professional ethics rules.

Ms. Lugbill is a member of the American, Ohio, and Cincinnati Bar Associations; National, Ohio, and Cincinnati Employment Lawyers Associations; Ohio Academy of Trial Lawyers; American and Hamilton County Trial Lawyers (founding member) Associations; Federal Bar Association; and Lawyers Coordinating Committee (AFL-CIO). She is Master of the Bench-Emeritus-Potter Stewart American Inn of Court, a court-appointed mediator in the Southern District of Ohio, an arbitrator on the Cincinnati Bar Association Fee Arbitration Committee, and certified in the collaborative law mediation/settlement negotiation techniques by the Collaborative Law Institute. Ms. Lugbill is also an active board member/officer of several nonprofit groups and charitable foundations.

Born in Puerto Rico, Ms. Lugbill graduated in 1980 from the University of
Virginia Law School (J.D.) and in 1976 from Kalamazoo College (Michigan), with a B. A. and honors in history. She is admitted to all Ohio state and federal courts, the District of Columbia courts and the District Court for the District of Columbia, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court.

Daniel Guttman

Daniel Guttman
1920 L Street, N.W., Suite 400
Washington, D.C. 20036
Telephone: (202) 783-6091
Facsimile: (202) 783-6088
dguttman@whistleblowerlaws.com.

An experienced attorney and law professor, Daniel Guttman has considerable expertise in government contracting and has written extensively in the field.