Goodwin Brings on Former DOJ Fraud Senior Deputy in Washington

Goodwin Procter is continuing to build out its white collar capabilities, adding former senior deputy chief of the DOJ’s fraud section Allan Medina.

Medina is joining Goodwin’s Washington office as a partner in its white collar defense, government investigations and healthcare practices. He is just the latest former federal prosecutor to join Goodwin’s ranks over the past month.

Katherine Wawrzyniak joined the firm’s San Francisco office in November from the US Attorney’s office in Northern California where she led the government’s cases against former Google engineer Anthony Levandowski and Russian hacker Yevgeniy Nikulin.

Goodwin also recently picked up Morrison & Foerster’s David Lynn in Washington to lead its public company advisory practice. He previously served as the chief counsel of the corporation finance division at the Securities and Exchange Commission.

“We have talent across the spectrum, including many former government, high-level officials and Allan is one of them, who really can bring the insight as to what motivates the investigators and what approaches are going to be most successful for clients in navigating through what’s a very active area of enforcement,” said Richard Strassberg, chair of Goodwin’s white collar defense and government investigations practice.

Medina joined the fraud section of the Department of Justice’s criminal division in 2012, later becoming chief of the healthcare fraud unit in 2019.

He was a part of the government’s team that secured a conviction in 2013 against mental health care company, Health Care Solutions Network, for orchestrating a fraud scheme resulted in more than $63 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare and Florida Medicaid. He was also a part of the team that successfully prosecuted Philip Esformes, a Florida nursing home owner who was convicted of leading one of the largest health-care frauds.

Esformes was sentenced to 20 years in prison, but had his sentence commuted by President Donald Trump in late 2020.

Medina was named senior deputy chief in 2022 where he supervised more than 74 prosecutors and data analysts in investigating and prosecuting individuals and companies across the country in complex healthcare fraud matters and cases involving the illegal prescription, distribution, and diversion of opioids.

The global healthcare industry is already the largest single vertical and that’s going to continue, said Chris Wilson, co-chair of Goodwin’s healthcare practice.

The firm’s plan was to assemble a team of practitioners, from a disputes and investigations perspective, that focuses predominantly or exclusively in the healthcare space, Wilson said, noting other recent hires like former federal prosecutor Ilene Albala, former chief counsel to the HHS inspector general Greg Demske, former senior SEC enforcement division official Jonathan Hecht and former chair of Pepper Hamilton Thomas Gallagher.

“Taken together, their collective experience and the level of insight that they could provide our clients in terms of how to navigate some of the most sensitive healthcare-related fraud disputes and investigations matters that they may face,” Wilson said.

When he left his role as senior deputy chief, Medina and his team were at the forefront of shaping corporate enforcement and compliance, not just in the healthcare space, but also Foreign Corrupt Practices Act space, he said.

“Seeing what’s coming down the pike and understanding the importance of compliance and the role that will have in law enforcement in the future, I want to be able to bring to bear some of that expertise for not just my clients, but my team here at Goodwin,” Medina said.