Eric R. Havian
(San Francisco)

National Law Journal named Eric R. Havian a Top 10 "Winning" attorney for 2008 based on his work representing whistleblowers.

His experience as a former Assistant U.S. Attorney combined with nearly 15 years of specializing in qui tam cases make him a valuable advocate for whistleblowers.

He has worked extensively and successfully with whistleblowers in defense contractor fraud cases and other types of qui tam lawsuits. Most recently, he served as lead attorney in a successful qui tam case against Northrop Grumman that settled for $325 million. It was the largest settlement ever paid by a defense contractor in a whistleblower case and the second largest settlement involving defense contractor fraud. The American Lawyer featured a story about the Northrop settlement, saying, "The real winner was the whistle-blower in the False Claims Act case, Robert Ferro, and his lawyer, Eric Havian at Phillips & Cohen."

In a previous qui tam lawsuit against Northrop Grumman handled by Mr. Havian, the aerospace contractor settled for $111 million. Mr. Havian also has worked with numerous local governments, including the County of Los Angeles and the City of San Francisco, to pursue state False Claims Act cases against companies for fraud. One of his more prominent wins was serving as lead counsel representing Los Angeles County agencies in a trial that won a $223 million verdict against an electric utility for overcharging its government customers.

Based on surveys of lawyers and other information, Mr. Havian was named one of the "500 Leading Lawyers in America" by LawDragon and has been included in Super Lawyers' annual list of the Top 5 percent of the lawyers in northern California for the past five years.

He is a frequent speaker at conferences on the False Claims Act and qui tam lawsuits. He has published articles about whistleblowing and government contract fraud as well as how the False Claims Act applies to fraud in the environmental field.

Mr. Havian graduated cum laude in 1981 from Harvard Law School, where he won the Ames Moot Court Competition.

He was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney's Office in San Francisco from 1987 through 1994 and was the lead prosecutor for defense procurement fraud cases. During his tenure, Mr. Havian prosecuted numerous multi-million dollar cases of fraud against the federal government.

Before joining the U.S. Attorney's Office, Mr. Havian was a litigation associate at the San Francisco office of Heller, Ehrman, White & McAuliffe, where he practiced complex litigation.

Mr. Havian has taught courses on fraud at Stanford Law School and at the University of California School of Law (Boalt Hall). He has been a guest lecturer at Hastings College of the Law and has taught various seminars to assistant U.S. attorneys at the Attorney General's Advocacy Institute in Washington, D.C. He is a former co-chair of the American Bar Association Health Law Litigation Committee.