Stephen M. Kohn is a partner in the whistleblower law firm Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto and the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Whistleblower Center. He has represented whistleblowers since 1984, setting numerous precedents and winning landmark cases on behalf of corporate, government, qui tam, tax fraud and SEC whistleblowers. He was peer-review rated by the National Law Journal as one of the 50-top plaintiff’s lawyers in the United States, the only whistleblower rights lawyer to achieve this distinction.
Qui Tam Practice: Stephen Kohn won the largest qui tam whistleblower reward ever given to a single individual ($104 million to Swiss bank Bradley Birkenfeld). Kohn won one of the highest SEC whistleblower awards and served as lead counsel in a qui tam whistleblower case alleging that a leading Japanese manufacturer was responsible for selling thousands of defective bulletproof vests to police departments and the military. After ten years of litigation, the whistleblower won, triggering millions of dollars in damages to both the whistleblower and taxpayers.
SEC Practice: In addition to winning one of the largest Dodd-Frank Act whistleblower reward cases, Stephen Kohn worked directly with the U.S. Congress in drafting the Sarbanes-Oxley and Dodd-Frank Act whistleblower protection provisions. Kohn was among the leading whistleblower advocates participating in the SEC’s initial whistleblower rulemaking proceedings, meeting one-on-one with each Commissioner, and filing numerous written submissions relied upon by the Commission in crafting the final rules.
Publications: Kohn’s eighth book on whistleblower law is the highly respected The New Whistleblower’s Handbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Doing What’s Right and Protecting Yourself (Lyons Press, 2017), rated by the PEN Center as among the top ten books ever written on whistleblowers. In 1985 Kohn wrote the first-ever legal treatise on whistleblower law. Kohn teaches a seminar on whistleblower law at the Northeastern University School of Law.
More Legal and Business Bylines From Stephen M. Kohn
- FinCEN Head Praises New AML Whistleblower Program - (Posted On Tuesday, May 07, 2024)
- Justice Department has Opportunity to Revolutionize its Enforcement Efforts with Whistleblower Program - (Posted On Thursday, April 18, 2024)
- A New Year for Whistleblowers? Emergency Action Needed to Make Current Whistleblower Laws Work - (Posted On Wednesday, January 03, 2024)
- Current Whistleblower Procedures Fall Short of U.S. Strategy on Countering Corruption - (Posted On Thursday, May 25, 2023)
- A Bipartisan Tax Bill Aims to Close Loopholes in Whistleblower Law - (Posted On Monday, April 17, 2023)
- AML Bill Key to Busting Russian Oligarchs - (Posted On Wednesday, December 14, 2022)
- The “Iron Curtain” has Fallen: A Radical Shift in Lawyers Representing Whistleblowers - (Posted On Friday, September 30, 2022)
- FRAUDSTERS PAY – THE PUBLIC PROFITS: A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Whistleblower Reward Laws - (Posted On Monday, August 29, 2022)
- Don’t Use “Build Back Better” to Sabotage the False Claims Act - (Posted On Friday, November 12, 2021)
- Whistleblower Protections: A Key to the Success of President Biden’s “Fight Against Corruption” - (Posted On Wednesday, November 03, 2021)