Brian French is a partner and member of the firm’s Government Investigations and White Collar Defense team. He represents clients in government investigations, enforcement actions, and litigation, mostly involving the life sciences and healthcare industries. Brian began his career at Gulfcoast Legal Services in Clearwater, Florida, representing low-income children and families in civil rights, education, and disability-related matters.
I represent a range of healthcare organizations, life sciences companies, executives, and employees in government investigations and related criminal proceedings and civil litigation brought by the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney’s Offices, state attorneys general, and qui tam relators. In the healthcare field, I’ve represented hospitals, home health and hospice organizations, skilled nursing facilities, dialysis providers, anesthesia providers, pain clinics, clinical laboratories, durable medical equipment companies, and physician groups in federal grand jury investigations, False Claims Act investigations and litigation, enforcement actions by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, audits by Medicare and Medicaid contractors, and voluntary self-disclosures to government regulators. I’ve also represented many pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device companies, as well as individuals, in government enforcement matters and litigation involving alleged off-label promotion and Anti-Kickback Statute violations, relationships with charitable patient assistance programs, consumer protection matters, and pricing and reimbursement issues.
I provide proactive compliance advice to clients in the healthcare and life sciences industries. I partner with clients in assessing their key risk areas and help them develop compliance strategies and programs that reflect the specific needs and goals of their organizations. I work with clients to ensure that their proposed business arrangements comply with federal and state regulations and collaborate with them in developing alternative solutions when necessary. In the life sciences field, I advise clients on a wide range of issues, such as appropriate product and service promotion, co-payment assistance programs, proper financial arrangements and collaborations between and among industry and providers, and the Physician Payment Sunshine Act (Open Payments) and related transparency issues. Finally, I help conduct regulatory due diligence reviews in merger and acquisition transactions.
Healthcare Investigations and Litigation
Life Sciences Investigations and Litigation
Other Investigations
Modern Healthcare | July 01, 2020
Boston Government Investigations & White Collar Defense partner Brian French is quoted in this article for his outlook on why rural hospitals are easy targets for billing fraud, and which communities are at most risk to be targeted.
Law360 | July 10, 2019
The following articles mention Boston Government Investigations and White Collar Defense partners Mark Seltzer and Brian French for their representation of GlaxoSmithKline in an ongoing matter related to the pharmaceutical company’s anti-nausea drug Zofran. One of the issues is whether federal law pre-empts state law in the case.
Reuters Legal | July 10, 2019
The following articles mention Boston Government Investigations and White Collar Defense partners Mark Seltzer and Brian French for their representation of GlaxoSmithKline in an ongoing matter related to the pharmaceutical company’s anti-nausea drug Zofran. One of the issues is whether federal law pre-empts state law in the case.
Boston College Law School, J.D.
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, B.A., cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa
Massachusetts
Florida
U.S. Court of Appeals, First Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit
U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts
U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida
Brian was selected, through a peer-review survey, for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® 2022 in the field of Health Care Law. He has been listed in Best Lawyers since 2021.
Brian has earned an AV Preeminent Rating® from Martindale-Hubbell®, the highest rating available for legal ability and professional ethics, in the areas of Litigation, White Collar Crime, and Health Care. He has been recognized in the Legal 500 United States Editorial (2013) for life sciences. In 2005 and 2007, Brian was recognized by Boston Magazine for inclusion in the annual “Massachusetts Super Lawyers – Rising Stars”® list, a designation granted to just 2.5 percent of attorneys in the state.
Brian is a former Co-Chair of the Health Care Fraud Subcommittee of the American Bar Association’s Criminal Litigation Committee. He was also a founding member, and served as Regional Vice-Chair, of the Public Schools Committee of the ABA’s Section on Individual Rights and Responsibilities. He was also a contributing author to the Criminal and Enforcement Litigation section of the ABA’s 2006, 2007, and 2008 editions of the Annual Review of Developments in Business and Corporate Litigation. Brian is a former member of the Summer Jobs Program Steering Committee and the Public Policy Subcommittee of the Criminal Law Section of the Boston Bar Association.
In the community, Brian served on the Advisory Board for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston’s YouthConnect program, an advocacy and intervention program for at-risk youth. He is a former member of the Board of Directors and Treasurer of Brookline Youth Hockey, and a past member of the Dana-Farber Leadership Council, where he served for four years as Co-Chair of the DFLC Walk Committee. Brian served on the Board of Directors of both the Silvio O. Conte Education Foundation and Families for Depression Awareness.