NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The law firm Getnick & Getnick LLP is pleased to announce that Neil V. Getnick, the firm’s managing partner, has received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Taxpayers Against Fraud Education Fund. Getnick accepted the award at the organization’s 11th annual awards dinner on Tuesday, Sept. 13, in Washington, DC.
“Neil’s exceptional leadership on anti-fraud issues has improved business integrity practices throughout the country and has helped elevate whistleblower law to the critical role it plays today in protecting government programs from fraud,” said James B. Helmer, Jr., Esq., a member of Taxpayers Against Fraud’s President’s Council, who presented the award to Getnick at the awards dinner.
Getnick and his firm have won some of the largest whistleblower cases in U.S. history. In 2010, he and his firm won a $600 million Medicaid recovery that resulted in the largest reward ever to a single whistleblower in the case U.S. ex rel. Cheryl Eckard v. Glaxo Smith Kline. In 2003, he and his firm won a $251 million Medicaid recovery, then the largest in U.S. history, in the case U.S. ex rel. George Couto v. Bayer Corporation USA.
Mr. Getnick serves as chairman of Taxpayers Against Fraud. He played a leading role in the passage of the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act amendments in New York last year, which transformed the New York False Claims Act into the strongest such law in the country. He also is the chairman of the New York State Bar Association’s Civil Prosecution Committee and is the Chairman and President of the International Association of Independent Private Sector Inspectors General. After 9/11, he and his firm were appointed as integrity monitors for the World Trade Center disaster clean-up.
“This award means a lot to me because I deeply believe in the important work that Taxpayers Against Fraud does to promote business integrity in a way that benefits both the general public and the business community,” Getnick said.
Getnick’s efforts are supported by the cumulative efforts of the Getnick & Getnick team, including partners Lesley Ann Skillen, Margaret J. Finerty, and Richard J. Dircks.
The Taxpayers Against Fraud Education Fund (www.taf.org) is a nonprofit public interest organization dedicated to combating fraud against the Federal Government through the promotion and use of the federal and state False Claims Acts and their qui tam provisions, and the IRS, SEC and CFTC whistleblower law statutes. Qui tam is a unique mechanism in the law that allows persons and entities with evidence of fraud against federal programs or contracts to sue the wrongdoer on behalf of the Government.
Getnick & Getnick LLP (www.getnicklaw.com) is a Manhattan-based commercial law firm with a dedicated anti-fraud litigation and business integrity practice. The firm represents individuals, corporations and governmental entities seeking civil remedies to combat and guard against fraud and corruption. The firm’s practice is national and international in scope.