I am a tough and detail-oriented lawyer committed to representing whistleblowers of fraudulent research. I am also a former investigative science journalist motivated to ensure that meritorious allegations result in the correction of the scientific record and the recovery of associated misdirected grant funding.
I graduated from Balliol College, Oxford, with a B.A. in Physics and Philosophy. From 2000 to 2014, I was a science journalist. I published hard-hitting articles exposing cases of scientific fraud in New Scientist, the news section of Nature, and in other publications. In 2009, I published a book about a condensed matter physics fraud at Bell Laboratories. In recent years, the book has drawn renewed attention, following a number of high-profile cases of scientific fraud. It came out in a second edition in 2025.
Many ask why I chose to study law when I was already having some impact as a journalist. Over time, I observed the limits of investigative journalism in tackling fraud cases. Cover-ups had always happened, but with the rise of social media, I saw more organizations shamelessly denying meritorious fraud allegations breaking in the press. Remarkably, a 2009 FOIA case that I filed to try to access a report of investigation into a government-funded scientific fraud was unsuccessful, though I ultimately was still able to cover the case in Nature. I increasingly observed not only corporations, but organizations that should have a more moral compass, such as universities and healthcare providers, turning a blind eye to evidence for fraud in plain sight.
I went to law school to be equipped to tackle scientific fraud cases that would be unlikely to resolve through public exposure alone. During my J.D. at Boston University School of Law, I completed internships in two government prosecutor offices. I contributed to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts’ investigation into the stem cell research laboratory of Piero Anversa at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, which resulted in the Brigham repaying $10 million in research grant funding. I also participated in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ investigation into fraudulent opioid marketing by Purdue Pharma. As an associate attorney, between 2018 and 2022, I was a key member of the team that achieved a record settlement of $900 million in a kickback case against the pharmaceutical company Biogen, after the Department of Justice did not intervene in the case. My former client, Michael Bawduniak, earned a reward of over $266 million for reporting thousands of payments to prescribing physicians for expert consulting advice that Biogen did not need and never intended to utilize.
In 2023, I founded this law firm in Boston, Massachusetts, to represent whistleblowers of fraudulent research in filing FCA and SEC complaints. In 2025, I achieved the first FCA recovery by a member of the emerging community of “sleuths,” data analysts who detect fraudulent research using mostly published research articles. I am also providing pro bono or philanthrophically supported assistance to whistleblowers experiencing legal threats from the subjects of their allegations, or stonewalling by scientific journals and research institutions.