DOJ Sets FCA Sights on Private-Sector Colleges
Client Alert | 1 min read | 09.05.12
On August 30, the Justice Department intervened and filed an FCA complaint against ATI Enterprises, Inc., which operates private-sector colleges, alleging that ATI knowingly misrepresented its job placement statistics to maintain its state licensure and, thus, its eligibility for federal financial aid, knowingly enrolled under-qualified students, and fraudulently kept students enrolled despite insufficient attendance and poor grades. DOJ's announcement follows other recent high profile cases in the higher education arena, including US ex rel. Oberg v. Ky. Higher Educ. in June (in which the Fourth Circuit considered whether corporate entities created by states to provide higher education financing, accused of making false claims to DOE, were "persons" subject to FCA liability) and Cuccinelli v. Univ. of Va. in March (in which the Virginia Supreme Court held that UVA was not a "person" or "corporation" under the Virginia state-equivalent FCA).
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Client Alert | 2 min read | 11.14.25
Claim construction is a key stage of most patent litigations, where the court must decide the meaning of any disputed terms in the patent claims. Generally, claim terms are given their plain and ordinary meaning except under two circumstances: (1) when the patentee acts as its own lexicographer and sets out a definition for the term; and (2) when the patentee disavows the full scope of the term either in the specification or during prosecution. Thorner v. Sony Comput. Ent. Am. LLC, 669 F.3d 1362, 1365 (Fed. Cir. 2012). The Federal Circuit’s recent decision in Aortic Innovations LLC v. Edwards Lifesciences Corp. highlights that patentees can act as their own lexicographers through consistent, interchangeable usage of terms across the specification, effectively defining terms by implication.
Client Alert | 6 min read | 11.14.25
Microplastics Update: Regulatory and Litigation Developments in 2025
Client Alert | 6 min read | 11.13.25
