Stuart M. Gerson

Attorney Stuart Gerson’s respected trial and appellate skills and power of persuasion help him successfully represent health care, life sciences, and financial services clients in high-stakes civil and criminal matters nationwide.

Stuart has extensive experience litigating cases involving the cybersecurity of health care information, trade secrets, and other confidential data as well as civil and criminal fraud issues, particularly under the federal False Claims Act. He also defends various antitrust and securities matters for clients in the health care and financial sectors.

Stuart was appointed Acting Attorney General of the United States during the early Clinton administration, after having served as President G.H.W. Bush's appointee as Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ). He has also served as an advisor to several presidents.

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Cybersecurity and Data Privacy

Stuart has been active in digital data security, compliance, breach enforcement, and litigation defense. For example, he:

• Advises health care and other clients with respect to data protection and affirmative conduct
• Counsels providers, investors, business associates, and others on compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and the several iterations of the government’s Standards for Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information as well as on larger cybersecurity issues, including the establishment of best practices as described in the President’s Executive Order and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (“NIST”) Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity and recently published “Excellence Frameworks” for compliance
• Defends clients through all aspects of government investigations that are triggered by high-profile privacy incidents and data breaches
• Defends complex litigation cases, particularly class actions, involving data breaches, cybersecurity, and privacy matters

Among his successes in litigating cybersecurity issues, Stuart won an emblematic case on behalf of two health plans, achieving the unusual result of getting a court to deny class certification in a mass-breach case. In addition, he has represented various entities in responding to federal and state enforcement challenges presented by data breaches.

Stuart also is involved in policy issues as a member of the privacy and security and government relations core groups of the ISAO Standards Organization, which was established pursuant to a Presidential Executive Order and is intended to harmonize government and private sector cyber interests. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the National Council of Registered ISAOs, which provides national oversight of cyber threat information sharing and public-private relationships concerning cyber security and data privacy. Stuart is a frequent provider of analysis and comment on cybersecurity, data privacy, class action reform, health care, and Supreme Court issues to national print and broadcast media.

Civil and Criminal Fraud

A former federal prosecutor with extensive federal jury trial and appellate experience, Stuart has long been active in the defense of some of the largest civil and criminal fraud cases brought by the federal government and qui tam relators under the federal False Claims Act (“FCA”) and other antifraud statutes.

Stuart’s fraud case experience includes:

• Serving as lead counsel in most of the largest defense, health care, and financial institution fraud actions brought by the U.S. government
• Defending cases under the FCA and anti-kickback laws, in matters related to trade secrets and the development of high technology
• Leading many internal corporate investigations on behalf of management and directors
• Winning numerous qui tam cases on dismissal or summary judgment motions

Antitrust and Securities

Stuart also has litigated many antitrust and securities cases on behalf of investment banks, broker-dealers, and insurance companies. His experience in these matters includes:

• Obtaining dismissal of a $150 million antitrust claim against a regional hospital organization
• Achieving affirmance by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in a complex antitrust matter involving an alleged price-fixing conspiracy in the bond industry
• Defending an international corporation against criminal antitrust claims in a massive governmental cartel case
• Representing the broker of the World Trade Center property insurance program in ongoing 9/11 cases in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
• Serving as a principal negotiator, on behalf of a large investment bank, to resolve with the Antitrust Division the Department of Justice’s massive NASDAQ case

U.S. Government Experience

As head of the DOJ’s Civil Division from 1989 to 1993, Stuart served as the federal government's chief litigator in all major matters, including those related to financial institution fraud, defense fraud, health care reimbursement, food and drug law, and health care fraud. He was involved in developing policies and procedures directed at protecting government and commercial data and detecting and prosecuting data thieves, oversaw the FBI’s successful investigation into the first terrorist attack on the World Trade Center (in 1993), served as the government's principal counsel in the environmental and mass tort litigations involving Exxon-Valdez, and represented the United States in significant class actions.

Stuart served as the observer-delegate of the United States to the Council of Europe Ministers of Justice. He also was a member of the George H.W. Bush administration's National Health Policy Working Group as head of its Medical Malpractice Reform Working Group and as its spokesman on matters of civil justice reform.

During the 1988 Presidential election, Stuart was a senior advisor to the campaign of George H.W. Bush on matters including debate preparation, comparative research, and surrogate speaking on criminal justice, judicial, health policy, and defense issues. He later was a Transition Team leader in the Office of the President-Elect with regard to international banking agencies. In addition, he served in the presidential transition of President George W. Bush.

Between 1972 and 1975, Stuart was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Washington, DC, focusing on criminal prosecutions and appellate matters. Between 1967 and 1972, Stuart was a counter-intelligence officer in the U.S. Air Force.

Stuart writes a blog series on LinkedIn, about Supreme Court rulings and dynamics: SCOTUS Today.

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Stuart has received an "AV Preeminent" Peer Review Rating by Martindale-Hubbell for the past 30 years, signifying the highest level of professional excellence. In addition, he has been selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America^© (2014 to 2025) in the field of Health Care Law. He also was selected for inclusion in The American Lawyer and Martindale-Hubbell's Top Rated Lawyers 2014 list in Washington, DC, and the 2013 list in Health Care Law and was named to the Washington, DC Super Lawyers list (2013) in the areas of Civil Litigation: Defense, Social Security Disability, and Antitrust Litigation. In October 2019, Stuart was named one of The American Lawyer’s “Litigators of the Week” for his non-partisan pro bono work to challenge border wall funding.

Education

• Georgetown University Law Center (J.D., 1967)
• Pennsylvania State University (B.A., 1964)

Professional & Community Involvement

• American Bar Foundation, Fellow
• Constitution Project
• Federalist Society
• Heritage Foundation Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, Legal Advisory Board
• Law360 Health Editorial Advisory Board
• National Council of Registered ISAOs, Board of Directors
• Seabury Resources for Aging, Board of Directors
• Washington Legal Foundation, Legal Policy Advisory Board