Joy Clairmont

Biography

Joy Clairmont is a Shareholder in the Whistleblower, Qui Tam & False Claims Act Group, one of the premier groups practicing in this field in the country. Berger & Montague’s Whistleblower, Qui Tam & False Claims Act Group has recovered more than $3 billion for federal and state governments, as well as over $500 million for the firm’s whistleblower clients. 

For more than twenty years, Ms. Clairmont has pursued whistleblower cases in state and federal courts nationwide. She has developed tremendous experience and expertise in this unique and intricate area of the law, as well as attained considerable success in the whistleblower practice area. Her accomplishments have earned her recognition from her peers, having recently won the The Anti-Fraud Coalition’s Whistleblower Lawyer of the Year Award.

Whistleblower cases arise when a company or individual defrauds the federal or state government. Under the law, a private individual with personal knowledge of the fraud may bring a case on behalf of the government to recover the defrauded funds and receive a share (usually between 15-30%) of any eventual recovery by the government. 

Ms. Clairmont’s outstanding results for her whistleblower clients include the following:

• A whistleblower case brought by two sales representatives against the J&J subsidiary, Janssen, for off-label promotion of two of its HIV/AIDS drugs. At trial, the jury found Janssen liable for over $150 million in damages to the government, one of the largest False Claims Act jury verdicts in history. With mandatory trebling of damages and civil penalties the final judgment could exceed $1 billion.
• A whistleblower case against Bristol-Myers Squibb for fraudulently underpaying rebates on its drugs owed to various State Medicaid Programs under the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program, resulting in a settlement of $75 million.
• A whistleblower case against three pharmaceutical manufacturers, AstraZeneca, Cephalon, and Biogen, for Medicaid rebate fraud that settled for $55.5 million.
• On behalf of a psychiatrist client, a whistleblower case against Universal Health Services, Inc., a company operating behavioral health treatment facilities nationwide. The United Sates intervened in the case and related cases from other whistleblowers, resulting in a $117 million global settlement. 
• On behalf of a speech-language pathologist, a whistleblower case against Select Medical (now known as Encore) for overbilling Medicare for rehabilitation therapy services at twelve skilled nursing facilities located in New Jersey and New York. The case resulted in an $8.4 million settlement.
• A whistleblower case brought by a research scientist against The Scripps Research Institute for NIH grant fraud related to medical research that led to a $10 million settlement.
• On behalf of two salespeople, a whistleblower case against Singulex, a privately-held company, for causing Medicare to be billed for medically unnecessary laboratory tests and/or health care providers to bill for laboratory tests without their knowledge or consent, that settled for $1.25 million.
• As part of a team of attorneys, the “AWP” whistleblower cases that involved a series of actions filed in several federal and state courts against many of the largest pharmaceutical manufacturers for defrauding the government through false and inflated price submissions for their drugs (i.e., falsely reporting the drug’s Average Wholesale Price (AWP), a pricing metric on which government health care reimbursement is based), which resulted in more than $2 billion in recoveries to the government.
• A Medicaid rebate fraud whistleblower case against the drug company, Wyeth, involving Wyeth’s acid-reflux drug, Protonix, in which the government intervened and settled for $784.6 million.

Ms. Clairmont is a knowledgeable and enthusiastic advocate for her whistleblower clients. She understands the many challenges involved in becoming a whistleblower and deciding to hold companies and individuals responsible for fraud. Clients rave about her. One client had this to say: “Joy Clairmont has proven to be an effective, smart, detail oriented, highly capable qui tam lawyer with an empathetic approach to her clients.” Another client noted that Ms. Clairmont “is a seasoned,  dedicated attorney with an unwavering work ethic” who “throughout the litigation has maintained a high level of professionalism, integrity and tireless support.”