Tue, November 10, 2026 at 2:00PM EDT, 1 hour, Register
There was a time when government declination of a False Claims Case most likely signaled the end of case.
Today, with over 600 cases filed each year, the federal and state governments are counting on Relator’s counsel to carry the ball and litigate in the absence of intervention.
Private pursuit of these cases has broken new ground in applying new fact patterns settled FCA principles.
This one-hour seminar will teach participants to reverse engineer a case; anticipate at the filing stage what a trial will look like, and from investigation to pretrial litigation, assume a trial is inevitable.
Learning Objectives:
- Learn pleading and pretrial rules particular to the FCA
- Understand the essential evidentiary rules necessary to put a case together
- Explore trial techniques that will create efficiencies in proof
Faculty:
Reuben Guttman
Reuben Guttman is a founding member of Guttman, Buschner and Brooks PLLC. His practice involves complex litigation and class actions. He has represented clients in claims brought under the Federal False Claims Act, securities laws, the Price Anderson Act, Department of Energy statutes and regulations, the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN), Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) and various employment discrimination, labor and environmental statutes. He has also tried and/or litigated claims involving fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, antitrust, business interference and other common law torts.
The International Business Times has called Mr. Guttman “one of the world’s most prominent whistleblower attorneys.” He has served as counsel in some of the largest recoveries under the False Claims Act. Mr. Guttman served as lead counsel in a series of cases resulting in the recovery of more than $30 million under the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act. Mr. Guttman is the author and/or editor of numerous articles, book chapters, and technical publications.
In addition to his writings, Mr. Guttman has testified before committees of the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate on the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act (AHERA). Mr. Guttman earned his law degree at Emory University School of Law, where he has been a Senior Fellow and Adjunct Professor at the Emory University School of Law Center for Advocacy and Dispute Resolution and has been a Team Leader for the school’s Trial Techniques Program. He is a faculty member of the National Institute for Trial Advocacy and Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.
He is currently a Professional Lecturer at the American University School of Public Affairs where he teaches Equal Protection/Constitutional Law. He is co-author of the text Pretrial Advocacy (NITA/Wolters-Kluwer 2021 with Professor JC Lore) and he has published more than 100 articles.
Traci L. Buschner
Traci L. Buschner is a founding member of Guttman, Buschner & Brooks PLLC. A former state prosecutor, Ms. Buschner has spent nearly 30 years representing plaintiffs in complex litigation ranging from class actions to government contract fraud. She has been involved in multi-million-dollar recoveries on behalf of workers asserting claims under numerous federal statutes and has handled some of the largest successful False Claims Act actions, bringing billions of dollars to the United States Government.
Ms. Buschner has represented some of the nation’s largest labor unions and their members. On behalf of the Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers International Union (OCAW), AFL-CIO involving environmental litigation which led to Secretary of Energy, William Richardson, to cancel a project to recycle radioactive nickel at the Oak Ridge, Tennessee K-25 Nuclear Weapons Complex.
Ms. Buschner currently serves as President-Elect of the Trial Lawyers Association of Metropolitan Washington, D.C. (DC-TLA) and as the Chair of Miami University’s Pre-Law Alumni Board.
She has also served as a faculty member for Emory University Law School’s Trial Techniques Program (2011, 2012, 2014 and 2016) and for National Institute for Trial Advocacy’s (“NITA”) Deposition Skills seminar in Seattle, Washington.
Ms. Buschner has been recognized for several years, by Washingtonian Magazine, as a top Whistleblower Lawyer. Her work on the Abbott False Claims Act case at Grant & Eisenhofer was featured in The National Law Journal, “Plaintiffs’ Hot List” (2011-2012).
Publications:
Chapter Co-Author, “Remote Advocacy: A Guide to Survive and Thrive” published by NITA 2020 (e-book).
Co-Author, “Patients Suffer from Drug Industry’s Chronic Greed,” Wall Street Journal MarketWatch (August 7, 2013)
Co-Author, “Taking the Next Step in Pharma Fraud,” American Constitution Society Blog (May 8, 2012).
“Unfortunately, the Basic Problems Remain Unfixed,” The Environmental Forum, Volume 17, No. 6, November/December 2000.
This course includes:
- Certificate of completion
- CLE credits and reporting (if applicable)
- Live Q&A with faculty
- Desktop & mobile access
To register or for more information visit: https://www.lawline.com/course/litigating-false-claims-cases-through-trial
