Kandis L. Kovalsky
Member, Kang Haggerty LLC
Qui tam trial lawyer. Litigates the cases other firms decline.
Kandis L. Kovalsky represents relators in qui tam actions under the federal and state False Claims Acts, focused on healthcare fraud against Medicare, Medicaid and TRICARE. She litigates complex declined cases, pursues the individuals behind the schemes, and holds healthcare private equity owners accountable for their portfolio companies.
Kandis L. Kovalsky is a trial lawyer in Philadelphia whose practice centers on representing relators in high stakes qui tam actions filed under the federal and state False Claims Acts. Her whistleblower work focuses on healthcare fraud against government payors including Medicare, Medicaid and TRICARE.
She has a particular focus on false claims arising from the opioid crisis, including conduct by drug companies, providers and pharmacies. Her approach is deliberately not limited to the corporate entity. She pursues the executives and individuals responsible for the scheme, and she has a stated interest in holding healthcare-focused private equity firms accountable for the fraudulent acts of their portfolio companies.
That is the theory behind the firm's 9 million dollar Belhealth settlement, where liability reached the private equity sponsor and its principals personally rather than stopping at the operating pharmacies. It is also unusual: most qui tam complaints name the company and stop there.
She litigates and manages complex qui tam cases in which the government declines to intervene. Many whistleblower lawyers do not have the experience or the resources to carry a declined case, and she brings a commercial litigation background to prosecuting them. For a relator, that is the question that matters most when the Department of Justice passes.
She is admitted in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York, before the United States Supreme Court, the Second and Third Circuits, and in seven federal district courts. She represents Dr. David Zielinski in the pending False Claims Act case against Harvard University concerning the administration of 275 million dollars in NIH grants, and she represented the relator in the 2 million dollar Recovery Centers of America settlement announced by the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
She is a member of Taxpayers Against Fraud, serving in its Young Lawyers Division and Financial Fraud Section, and of NAMWOLF, the Philadelphia and American Bar Associations, and NAPABA. She served on The Legal Intelligencer Young Lawyer Editorial Board and has been named to Best Lawyers of America, Ones to Watch, and to Pennsylvania Super Lawyers Rising Stars.
Where the practice concentrates
- Declined cases: litigating qui tam matters the government does not join
- Individual and executive liability, not just corporate defendants
- Private equity accountability for portfolio company fraud
- Opioid and controlled substance false claims
Outside practice
Before law school she was a competitive figure skater for fifteen years and an eight-time Intercollegiate National medalist at the University of Delaware.
Whistleblower matters
$2 million False Claims Act settlement with Recovery Centers of America
$9 million settlement in a non-intervened fentanyl qui tam case
Whistleblower suit against Harvard University over NIH grant administration
Education
- J.D., Washington University in St. Louis School of Law
- B.A., University of Delaware
Admitted to practice
- Pennsylvania
- New Jersey
- New York
- U.S. Supreme Court
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
- U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
- U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania
- U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania
- U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey
- U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York
- U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
- U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois
Honors and recognition
- Best Lawyers of America - Ones to Watch, Commercial Litigation
- Pennsylvania Super Lawyers - Rising Star, Business Litigation, 2021 to 2025
Professional memberships
- Taxpayers Against Fraud, Young Lawyers Division, Financial Fraud Section
- American Bar Association, Co-Chair of Section of Litigation, Young Lawyer Division (2018-2021)
- Philadelphia Bar Association, Executive Committee
- Legal Intelligencer Young Lawyer Editorial Board (2016-2021)
- National Association of Minority & Woman Owned Law Firms
Full firm biography: Kandis L. Kovalsky at Kang Haggerty LLC
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