Truthout
Eric R Havian
For his work representing whistleblowers, Eric R. Havian was named a California ‘Attorney of the Year’ for 2010 by California Lawyer magazine and a Top 10 ‘Winning’ attorney for 2008 by the National Law Journal.
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.’
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.