Eric Havian

PARTNER | HE, HIM, HIS

in | Office: 415 707 6855 | Direct: 415 707 6861

eric@whistleblower.law

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Eric Havian is a partner at Whistleblower Partners. He has spent thirty years representing whistleblowers in nearly every type of case, recovering over $250 million for dozens of his clients, and has received widespread recognition for this work through various awards and media reports.

Through his long career Eric has acted as lead counsel for some of the most successful whistleblowers reporting fraud in a broad range of industries, from dialysis to library books, from electric power to water pipes.

That journey began when Eric was the lead Assistant U.S. Attorney in San Francisco for defense procurement fraud. It continued when Eric entered private practice to represent whistleblowers in such diverse matters as fraud involving satellite technology, mischarging government programs, and most recently in a record breaking 2023 settlement with KBR for alleged Iraq war fraud.

Eric and his colleagues at Whistleblower Partners were also the first to develop a broad practice of representing not only the whistleblowers, but also the defrauded state and local governments who were victimized by defendants in False Claims Act cases. It has been very rewarding to see these government agencies trust our attorneys to represent their interests as well as our whistleblower clients.

Eric strongly believes that a whistleblower firm must be able to litigate matters that end up decided by a jury. He has deep experience and an extensive track record in the courtroom. Building on litigation skills developed as a federal prosecutor, Eric has litigated multiple successful court and jury trials, as well as successful appeals on behalf of whistleblowers.

Eric has also achieved success and recognition in other kinds of whistleblower cases. He worked with the Securities and Exchange Commission staff to help draft regulations that govern the SEC’s highly successful whistleblower rewards program. He has made numerous submissions on behalf of whistleblowers to the SEC, as well as other agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service.

“Surprisingly few lawyers wake up looking forward to their work day. When you represent clients doing the right thing, making a positive difference and not just money, it’s a great motivator. I wouldn’t want to do anything else.”

After winning a $224 million whistleblower verdict, Eric was selected by the National Law Journal as one of the Top 10 “Winning” Attorneys in the nation. Two years later, after a string of additional whistleblower case successes, California Lawyer Magazine named him a “California Lawyer of the Year.”

He has been selected multiple times as a Lawdragon Top 500 Lawyer in America, a Lawdragon Top 500 Plaintiff Financial Lawyer, and every year since 2005 as a “Super Lawyer.”

He has enjoyed mentoring law students in various contexts—as an Adjunct Professor teaching a fraud seminar at Stanford Law School and Berkeley Law School; and more recently as a Wasserstein Fellow at Harvard advising law students on careers in public interest law.

Eric graduated in the top 3% of his class at Stanford University and cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he was one of two oralists on the team that won the Ames Moot Court competition.

Before law school, Eric worked for Bain & Company when that business consulting firm was in its infancy. He quickly decided business consulting was not for him, and headed off to law school.

Eric enjoys skiing, mountain biking, tennis, and grandchildren. Some get harder with age.

  • United States ex rel. Koo v. GS Caltex, No. 2:18-cv-00174 (S.D. Ohio): Co-lead counsel in a bid rigging case that resulted in a published court decision awarding our client 23% of over $160 million (approximately $37 million). The award was the highest percentage ever granted to a whistleblower in a case that large. The opinion stands as one of the most important precedents for fair and just whistleblower awards.

  • State of California ex rel. Armenta v. James Jones Company, No. BC173487 (L.A. Cnty. Sup. Ct.): Lead counsel in litigation of a case against several large corporations that allegedly sold high lead waterworks parts to hundreds of municipalities for use in drinking water systems. Litigated several appeals that produced groundbreaking appellate precedents for whistleblower cases in California.

  • United States ex rel. Ferro v. TRW, Inc., No. 02-9934-PA (C.D. Cal.): Lead counsel in a case where the defendant allegedly installed defective parts in highly classified spy satellites. The substandard technology was so sensitive that Eric was given a top secret compartmented security clearance and could only review documents in a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF). He is one of the only relator’s attorneys ever to receive such a sensitive clearance, reflecting the government’s confidence in the value of his contribution to the case. The company paid $350 million to settle the case and our client, Robert Ferro, received $48.7 million.

  • United States et al. ex rel. Barbetta v. DaVita Inc., No. 09-cv-02175 (D. Colo.): Represented whistleblower in a major health care fraud case against one of the two largest dialysis companies in the nation. DaVita paid nearly $400 million to settle the matter, at the time the largest kickback recovery in the country, and Barbetta received tens of millions of dollars as his reward.

  • United States ex rel. Poehling v. UnitedHealth Group, Inc., No. 2:16-cv-08697 (C.D. Cal.): Currently one of the lead attorneys in a team of dozens of attorneys litigating a whistleblower-initiated case against UnitedHealth Group, which alleges the company knowingly obtained inflated risk adjustment payments based on untruthful and inaccurate information about the health status of beneficiaries enrolled in UnitedHealth Group’s Medicare Advantage Plans. That massive litigation is ongoing.

  • In his previous career as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, Eric prosecuted many criminal cases, but the most chilling was Marvin “One-Eyed” Johnson. Johnson had allegedly murdered and ordered the murder of many witnesses against him to protect his drug empire in the Bay Area. After the District Attorney’s Office was unable to convict Johnson, the case was turned over to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. With his witnesses under protection by the U.S. Marshal and the suspects under electronic surveillance, Eric led the prosecution team to convict Johnson on multiple charges after a lengthy jury trial. He is now serving consecutive life terms in federal prison.

  • Common Cause National Governing Board

  • Impact Fund Board and Advisory Board

  • Brady United Regional Leadership Council

  • Chambers, Tier 1, False Claims Act – Plaintiff (2024)

  • Lawdragon, Top 500 Lawyers in America

  • Lawdragon, Top 500 Plaintiff Financial Lawyers (2023-2024)

  • Corporate International, Global Awards Winner 2017 for Whistleblower Lawyer of the Year in California (2017)

  • California Lawyer Magazine, California Lawyer of the Year (2010)

  • National Law Journal, Top 10 Winning Attorneys in the Country (2008)

  • Super Lawyers, Rising Stars (2004-2020)

  • Wasserstein Fellow, Harvard Law School (2020)

  • Harvard Law School (1981)

  • Stanford University (1977)