Claire M. Sylvia
(San Francisco)

Claire Sylvia is the author of The False Claims Act: Fraud Against the Government (West 2004), a leading treatise on the False Claims Act and its "qui tam" (whistleblower) provisions.

She works on qui tam cases involving healthcare fraud, defense contractor fraud and other types of fraud against the government. She has co-authored several articles on the False Claims Act and been a speaker at conferences on the whistleblower law. Recently she testified before the California Senate Judiciary Committee on the 2009 amendments to the California False Claims Act. 

Ms. Sylvia joined Phillips & Cohen after 10 years with the San Francisco City Attorney's Office, where she specialized in government ethics. Before working in the City Attorney's Office, she was an Assistant Legal Counsel in the Office of the U.S. Senate Legal Counsel. In that position, she represented Senate parties in litigation and advised Senate committees on legal matters related to investigations and other committee proceedings.

Ms. Sylvia graduated from Harvard Law School in 1987. She was a member of the Harvard Law Review and participated on the team that won best brief in the Ames Moot Court competition. Following graduation, she clerked for the Honorable Mariana Pfaelzer, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

Ms. Sylvia currently teaches a course on public integrity at the University of California School of Law (Boalt Hall).