Our Experts

Currently with the Law Firm of Phillips & Cohen LLP, Erika A. Kelton has substantial experience representing whistleblowers both in the U.S. and abroad in cases involving fraud against the U.S. government and those involving claims brought under whistleblower reward programs with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Internal Revenue Service, including Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations.
     
Ms. Kelton secured for a client an SEC whistleblower award of more than $30 million in a case involving massive securities fraud. It is the largest SEC whistleblower reward under the Dodd-Frank whistleblower program.
     
She also has set records in her work on "qui tam" (False Claims Act) whistleblower cases. Ms. Kelton was selected “Whistleblower Lawyer of the Year” for 2012 by Taxpayers Against Fraud, a nonprofit organization that advocates on behalf of whistleblowers, in recognition of her work on the Glaxo case and other advocacy work for whistleblowers. This year, Lawdragon selected her for its "500 Leading Lawyers in America" list.
     
As an expert in whistleblower enforcement approaches, Ms. Kelton has consulted with the U.S. Congress, the Securities Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Internal Revenue Service on the establishment and workings of the agencies’ whistleblower programs. She also has consulted on whistleblower programs with policymakers and legislators in Europe and Asia.

Ms. Kelton is frequently interviewed by journalists for her expertise in whistleblower matters involving the False Claims Act, the IRS whistleblower program and the Dodd-Frank whistleblower reward programs at the SEC and the CFTC. She often has been quoted by U.S. media – including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal – and by media in other countries, such as Valor Economico (Brazil), the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Germany), the BBC, The Financial Times and Australian Public Radio.

Ms. Kelton graduated in 1987 from the University of California Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall), where she was articles editor of the California Law Review. From 1987 to 1994 she was associated with Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.

Education:
J.D., University of California Berkeley School of Law (1987)

Bloomberg BNA Tax Management Portfolios:
(Commissioned) Tax Whistleblower Laws and Programs (author)