Stephen Kohn

Stephen M. Kohn, along with his partners are America’s leading whistleblower attorneys. He successfully represented the most important tax whistleblower in U.S. history (Bradley Birkenfeld) and won the largest whistleblower reward ever paid to an individual whistleblower ($104 million). Since 1984 his practice has focused exclusively on advocating for whistleblowers, expanding laws that protect and reward whistleblowers and litigating many cutting-edge cases. He has successfully represented whistleblowers under numerous state and federal laws, including the False Claims Act/qui tam laws, and established important precedent protecting whistleblowers under the First Amendment. Since 2009 his practice has expanded to helping international whistleblowers file claims in the United States for securities fraud, tax fraud and violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Mr. Kohn has served as lead counsel and prevailed in major precedent setting whistleblower cases both at trial and in appeals court rulings. Mr. Kohn worked with Congressional staff in proposing language incorporated into major whistleblower laws, such as the Dodd-Frank Act, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Whistleblower Protection Act. Many of his proposals were adopted by the Securities and Exchange Commission during their historic whistleblower-rulemaking proceedings. Additionally, Mr. Kohn volunteers as the pro bono Executive Director of the National Whistleblower, where he has filed numerous amicus briefs on behalf of whistleblowers in key Supreme Court cases. Mr. Kohn wrote the first legal treatise on whistleblower law in 1985. His seventh book on whistleblowing, The Whistleblower’s Handbook was praised by the Wall Street Journal as essential reading for whistleblowers. In 2014 Mr. Kohn and his firm were recognized by the National Law Journal as among the top 50 plaintiffs law firms in the United States.