Insights

Washington – August 20, 2026: The Best Lawyers in America® has recognized 57 of the firm's attorneys in its 2027 edition, a testament to the firm's deep bench of legal talent across practices and offices nationwide. In addition, 29 attorneys have been named to the Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch® list, recognizing outstanding attorneys earlier in their careers. 

On Tuesday, August 25, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that Deloitte LLP and several of its subsidiaries agreed to pay, collectively, $21.5 million to resolve allegations that Deloitte violated the False Claims Act (FCA) by failing to comply with new anti-discrimination requirements incorporated into its federal contracts, by discriminating against employees and applicants on the basis of race and sex, and by allocating and seeking reimbursement for costs related to those practices under its federal government contracts. This resolution is the second of its kind under DOJ’s recently launched Civil Rights Fraud Initiative, following a similar settlement by IBM in April 2026.

On September 1, 2026, the Eleventh Circuit issued its long-anticipated decision in United States v. Florida Medical Associates, LLC, – F.4th –, 2026 WL 2581886 (11th Cir. Sept. 1, 2026) (the “Zafirov appeal”) overturning the district court and holding that the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act (“FCA”) do not violate the Appointments Clause of Article II of the United States Constitution because relators are not officers of the United States that occupy “continuing positions.” The Eleventh Circuit did not reach other arguments made by the parties and remanded the case to the District Court for the Middle District of Florida to address two other constitutional arguments challenging the FCA’s qui tam provisions based on Article II’s Vesting and Take Care Clauses. 

On November 7, 2025, in Thornton v. National Academy of Sciences, No. 25-cv-2155, 2025 WL 3123732 (D.D.C. Nov. 7, 2025), the District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed a False Claims Act (FCA) retaliation complaint on the basis that the plaintiff’s allegations that he was fired after blowing the whistle on purported illegally discriminatory use of federal funding was not sufficient to support his FCA claim. This case appears to be one of the first filed, and subsequently dismissed, following Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s announcement of the creation of the Civil Rights Fraud Initiative on May 19, 2025, which “strongly encourages” private individuals to file lawsuits under the FCA relating to purportedly discriminatory and illegal use of federal funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in violation of Executive Order 14173, Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity (Jan. 21, 2025). In this case, the court dismissed the FCA retaliation claim and rejected the argument that an organization could violate the FCA merely by “engaging in discriminatory conduct while conducting a federally funded study.” The analysis in Thornton could be a sign of how forthcoming arguments of retaliation based on reporting allegedly fraudulent DEI activity will be analyzed in the future.