Whistleblower Law Collaborative is pleased to announce that its attorneys Bob Thomas, Suzanne Durrell, David W. S. Lieberman, Linda C. Severin, and Erica Blachman Hitchings were selected to the 2026 Massachusetts Super Lawyers list.
Super Lawyers Are Peer Nominated
The Massachusetts Super Lawyers list for 2026, released in April, showcases the region’s finest legal minds and is a distinction that only 5% of attorneys in Massachusetts receive. Peer nominations and evaluations are combined with independent research to select the most outstanding lawyers by practice area and region.
Five WLC Attorneys are Massachusetts Super Lawyers 2026
- Suzanne Durrell is a co-founder and managing member of Whistleblower Law Collaborative. Prior to WLC, Ms. Durrell served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney and as Deputy Chief, and then Chief, Civil Division, U. S. Attorney’s Office, Boston. At the U.S. Attorney’s Office, she supervised and prosecuted cases within the office’s burgeoning qui tam and False Claims Act unit from 1989 to 2002. She is in her 23rd year of representing whistleblowers. Suzanne was chosen to be a Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Woman of Law in 2022 and is American Bar Foundation fellow.
- Bob Thomas has been practicing law since 1986. For the last twenty-three years, Bob has been representing whistleblowers with his friend, colleague, and co-founder, Suzanne Durrell. Previously, Bob served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Maryland, focusing primarily on the prosecution of white-collar fraud matters and environmental crimes. While an AUSA, Bob earned the EPA Bronze Medal for his contribution to the prosecution of a landmark criminal Clean Water Act case. Bob has been an Adjunct Professor at Boston University School of Law since 2011.
- David W.S. Lieberman is an experienced litigator of complex fraud claims, and a former environmental crime prosecutor with the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office. One of David’s victories, United States ex rel. Doe v. CleanSlate Centers, was prosecuted along with the Massachusetts Attorney General against a chain of opioid treatment centers. His other recent victories include MORSECORP and Mass Eye and Ear Infirmary.
- Linda C. Severin was in private practice in Seattle doing white collar defense work before joining WLC. She was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York and worked in-house at a Fortune 100 corporation. Linda’s success against Genexe and Immerge settled allegations that false claims were submitted to Medicare for CGx and PGx tests that were not medically necessary and that were procured through kickbacks. Her successes also include the 2023 settlement with BioTel and LifeWatch.
- Erica Blachman Hitchings spent nine years at the Department of Justice working FCA cases. At DOJ, she was a member of a litigation team that recovered over $250 million from numerous technology and consulting companies. Erica also handled several healthcare fraud matters, including two cutting-edge Medicare Advantage fraud investigations. Since joining WLC in 2019, Erica worked on the recently-settled case United States ex rel. Butler, et al., v. Shikara, et al., No. 20-cv-80483 (S.D. Fl.) which included several Medicare Advantage insurers, as well as an insurance brokerage, provider group, and a physician, as defendants. Erica is part of team litigating several matters alleging fraud by numerous big banks. One of those cases yielded a $70 million qui tam settlement, the largest reported settlement ever under the Illinois FCA.
Whistleblower Law Collaborative
Whistleblower Law Collaborative LLC, based in Boston, devotes its practice entirely to representing clients nationwide in bringing actions under the federal and state False Claims Acts and other whistleblower programs. Among the firm’s many successes is the governments’ $234 million settlement with Mallinckrodt.
For more information, contact Whistleblower Law Collaborative at 617.366.2800.
