Michael A. Filoromo III, Civil Rights Attorney in Washington, District of Columbia

Michael Filoromo joined Katz Banks Kumin in May 2008 and co-founded the firm’s Philadelphia office in 2015 after being elevated to partner. He has litigated whistleblower cases in federal and state courts and the U.S. Department of Labor. He regularly represents clients in claims brought under the Sarbanes-Oxley corporate whistleblower protections, the False Claims Act anti-retaliation provisions, and the anti-discrimination and retaliation protections of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and corresponding state laws. He also frequently represents whistleblowers in the aviation, nuclear, railroad, pharmaceutical, and healthcare industries.

Mr. Filoromo has helped achieve successful outcomes under whistleblower laws, including a $2.4 million award for a client through the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) whistleblower program, one of the first 50 awards the SEC issued. Most recently, he represented a whistleblower in a qui tam lawsuit against Medicrea, a medical device company. In May 2021, Medicrea paid a total of $2 million to federal and state governments to settle allegations that it violated anti-kickback statutes and failed to disclose to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services payments it made to healthcare providers. Mr. Filoromo’s client received 22 percent of the False Claims Act proceeds.

Mr. Filoromo and Lisa Banks represented the former Director of Food and Nutrition Services for the District of Columbia Public Schools in a case brought under the D.C. Whistleblower Protection Act, the D.C. False Claims Act, and various constitutional and state law provisions. The case, Jeffrey Mills v. D.C. Public Schools, resulted in a $450,000 settlement for Mr. Mills. He also achieved one of the first reasonable cause determinations by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in an aviation whistleblower case. OSHA ordered reinstatement, back pay, compensatory damages, and attorneys’ fees, and the case resolved after an appeal. Mr. Filoromo has also litigated whistleblower cases in federal court under state wrongful termination claims and the Food Safety Modernization Act.

In acknowledgment of his achievements, Mr. Filoromo has been recognized by Best Lawyers in The Best Lawyers in America® list since 2020 and was selected to Super Lawyers in 2023 and Rising Stars from 2019-2022. Also in 2020, The Legal Intelligencer named Mr. Filoromo a “Pennsylvania Trailblazer,” an annual award honoring attorneys who are agents of change in their legal communities.

As president of the Eastern Pennsylvania Chapter of the National Employment Lawyers Association (NELA) from 2020 to 2023, Mr. Filoromo led an organization of approximately 80 plaintiff-side employment attorneys, developing educational and networking events, coordinating amicus briefing on issues important to the rights of workers, and organizing policy outreach on key local and state legislation and judicial nominations. He now serves as an EEOC liaison for the national NELA organization. In 2020, Mr. Filoromo was appointed to the Board of the Outreach to New and Young Lawyers Committee (ONYLC) of the ABA’s Labor and Employment Section, which provides educational and networking opportunities to serve attorneys new to the practice of employment law. He currently serves as the Employee Co-Chair of the ONYLC.

Mr. Filoromo contributes regularly to Whistleblower Law: A Practitioner’s Guide, a treatise first published in 2016 by American Legal Media (ALM) that is updated twice per year. He also authored a chapter for the ALM book New York Employment Law, originally published in 2017 and updated annually. Mr. Filoromo has also been interviewed by CNN, Bloomberg Law, and Cafepharma and has authored numerous articles for legal and trade publications, including Law360, the National Law Journal, the Westlaw Journal Healthcare Fraud, and the CPA Journal, and has led panel discussions on whistleblower law for the American Bar Association, the Practising Law Institute, and the Pennsylvania Bar Institute.

Mr. Filoromo is admitted to practice in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and the District of Columbia.