Thomas M. Greene

Thomas M. Greene has practiced complex civil litigation for more than thirty-five years.  He has represented False Claims Act whistleblowers for more than thirty years, starting in 1992 when the modern version of the statute was still in its infancy.  In the decades that followed, Greene’s influence over the development of False Claims Act practice in qui tam cases has been unmatched.

Greene ascended to the level of titan of the whistleblower bar with U.S. ex rel. Franklin v. Parke-Davis, the first False Claims Act case to allege that off-label promotion of drugs by a pharmaceutical company resulted in violations of the law.  After Greene filed the case in 1996, the United States government elected not to intervene, leaving Greene and his firm to pursue the novel theory without any significant government assistance.  It was only after a grueling eight-year effort that the case, which involved the drug Neurontin, was settled in 2004 with Pfizer for $430 million in combined civil fines and criminal penalties.  Greene’s seminal case likely did more to shape modern False Claims Act litigation than any other in the history of the statute; it proved that good results could be achieved by dedicated private counsel in cases declined by the government, while also paving the way for more than $14 billion in other off-label promotion recoveries.

Greene has continued to influence the relators’ bar in many other False Claims Act cases, most significantly with the record-setting settlement in U.S. ex rel. Bawduniak v. Biogen, which resolved for $900 million in 2022.  Like the Franklin case, Greene pursued the claims against Biogen after the government declined to intervene—and it was only after a ten-year effort involving more than two hundred motions and more than 20,000 hours of work that the settlement was achieved, marking the most successful declined False Claims Act case in the 160+ year history of the statute.  Even more notably, the $250 million federal whistleblower award in that case constitutes the largest whistleblower award ever conferred by the United States government.

Greene has maintained a complex civil litigation practice alongside his whistleblower work throughout his career.  A seasoned trial attorney, Greene has tried many cases to verdict, including a $142 million jury verdict under the Rackeetering Influenced & Corrupt Practices (RICO) Act, and a $102 million judgment under the California Unfair Competition Law. 

Greene is most often recognized, however, through his False Claims Act work representing whistleblowers across the country.  He is also a frequent and trusted speaker both to and on behalf of the relator’s bar, whether in Congressional hearings, professional associations across the country, and at universities including Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Boston College, and Northwestern.  Greene has also been featured in Our Daily Meds, a book by former New York Times reporter Melody Petersen, and in many radio and television appearances with National Public Radio, Canadian Broadcasting Company, NBC’s Dateline, Trial magazine, and German and French television channels.

Greene continues to go the extra mile for whistleblowers, employing his high-effort, low-volume approach to litigation in False Claims Act cases involving pharmaceutical companies, health care providers, public utilities, grant frauds, and customs duties.