Pamela Johnston

Pamela L. Johnston is a trial lawyer with Foley & Lardner LLP, where she is a member of the firm’s Government Enforcement Defense & Investigations Practice, the Securities Enforcement & Litigation Practice, and the Health Care Industry Team.

Pamela focuses in the areas of False Claims Act and whistleblower investigations and cases, white collar criminal defense, securities enforcement and other government enforcement actions.

She represents companies and individuals in parallel civil and criminal proceedings involving a variety of alleged wrongdoing, including submission of false claims, health care fraud, issues in the ambulance industry, insider trading, accounting fraud, other securities fraud, tax fraud, money laundering, structuring, fraud, and other business crimes.

She regularly advises large and small ambulance and EMS companies regarding regulatory issues and represents them in False Claims Act and criminal investigations and litigation. She conducts internal investigations for companies.

In her purely civil litigation cases, Pamela focuses on cases that typically involve complex legal issues such as securities or accounting issues.

Representative Experience :

Pamela’s False Claims Act experience involves cases and investigations pertaining to:

• Alleged violations of the Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS) and medical billing issues for ambulance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and other health care providers
• First responder fees / franchise fees and discounting arrangements in the ambulance / EMS industry
• Off-label marketing of pharmaceuticals
• Government contracts

Pamela’s securities experience involves criminal cases and SEC cases and investigations pertaining to:

• RMBS / mortgage fraud investigations
• Insider trading investigations
• Accounting restatements and litigation
• Broker-dealer regulatory investigations

The focus of Pamela’s criminal experience in the past five years has been:

• Money laundering and structuring cases
• Bank fraud and other types of fraud cases
• Insider trading cases

Following law school graduation, she served as a law clerk to the late Honorable Irving L. Goldberg, of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and as a law clerk to the Honorable Truman M. Hobbs, then chief judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama.

Education :

Pamela received her undergraduate degree in 1984 from the University of California at Davis. She received her law degree in 1987 from the University of California at Berkeley, where she was elected to the Order of the Coif. Pamela was a founder of and served as the executive editor of the Berkeley Technology Law Journal.

Admissions : Pamela is admitted to practice in California.

Representative Matters :

• Represented our client in an SEC enforcement action filed in federal district court in San Francisco. The client allegedly tipped material, non-public information to a friend in violation of the insider trading laws.
• We represented the individual during the government’s investigation (U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to move forward against our client) and the SEC’s investigation (SEC decided to charge the case).
• Another firm tried the liability phase of the SEC case, resulting in a civil verdict against the individual. Our client hired Foley to represent him during the penalty phase of the trial and in connection with any post-judgment briefing.
• The last hearing on the penalty phase of the trial was held July 12, 2011. We filed the opening brief in the Ninth Circuit on January 23, 2012.
• SEC enforcement matter brought against the former CFO, Todd Crow, of a publicly traded company. The SEC ranked this case in its top five national accounting fraud enforcement matters during “SEC Speaks” in 2011.
• Foley was counsel for Todd Crow and also represented him in the securities derivatives case that was settled in 2010.
• Foley represented Balboa Ambulance in connection with a parallel civil and criminal investigation by the San Diego U.S. Attorney’s Office. Government was looking for a million from our client, but we were able to persuade that $600k was sufficient and obtained a settlement of the False Claims Act case without any admission of liability.
• Government’s theory was that Balboa swapped discounted rates given to facilities for transports that the facilities were obligated to pay for in return for future Medicare transports which were more profitable. We are still representing the company in connection with the parallel criminal investigation.