Overview

Denise Barnes is a former U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) Trial Attorney who focuses her practice on compliance, white collar and regulatory investigations, and complex commercial litigation.  She represents clients in both public and non-public investigations, regulatory inquiries, and other proceedings involving federal and state agencies as well as commercial litigation.

Denise's investigative and litigation experience enables her to provide effective, yet pragmatic, counsel to clients in a broad range of practice areas with extensive experience in government investigations related to allegations arising under the False Claims Act, Anti-Kickback Statute, Stark Law, and FIRREA.  In particular, during Denise’s time at DOJ, she led a myriad of multidistrict investigations resulting in over $2.7 Billion in recoveries to federal taxpayers.

Services

Industries

Experience

Representative Matters

Trial Attorney with U.S. Department of Justice from 2015-2022
  • Investigated and settled an investigation of a major financial institution for $2.09 billion related to the bank’s alleged origination and sale of residential mortgage loans that it knew contained misstated income information and did not meet the quality that the bank represented
  • Investigated and settled a parallel investigation of a hospital system for $513 million related to criminal charges and civil claims involving a scheme to defraud the United States and to pay kickbacks in exchange for patient referrals in violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute (“AKS”) and the False Claims Act (“FCA”), among other things
  • Investigated and settled an investigation of a government contractor for $2.481 million to resolve allegations that they submitted false claims for payment under a construction contract funded by the United States Agency for International Development (“USAID”)
  • Investigated and settled a qui tam case against a software government contractor for $21.57 million to resolve allegations that company caused the government to be overcharged by providing misleading information about its commercial sales practices that was used in General Services Administration (“GSA”) contract negotiations
  • Investigated and settled with a skilled nursing chain for $30 million to resolve allegations that the chain violated the FCA by knowingly submitting false claims to Medicare for rehabilitation therapy services that were not reasonable, necessary and skilled
  • Investigated and settled allegations for $2.8 million to resolve claims that a hospital system violated the FCA by submitting or causing the submission of false claims for payment to federal health care programs related to alleged medically unnecessary procedures performed by a gynecologic oncologist
  • Investigated and settled allegations for $775,000 to resolve claims that the doctor violated the FCA by submitting or causing the submission of false claims for payment to the federal healthcare programs related to alleged medically unnecessary surgical procedures
  • Led numerous multidistrict nonpublic investigations involving financial institutions related to allegations of mail and wire fraud, false statements and false bank records, among other things, in coordination with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Office of Comptroller of the Currency, the FDIC and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”)
  • Led a nonpublic investigation of a major financial institution’s third-party vendor related to allegations of mail and wire fraud, bank fraud, false statement and false bank records, among other things, in coordination with the CFPB
  • Led a nonpublic investigation of a hospital system related to AKS and FCA allegations involving nurse practitioners and other mid-level practitioners
  • Led a nonpublic investigation of a government contractor related to FCA allegations that the contractor provided false and misleading information to GSA related to sales practices
  • Led a nonpublic investigation of a development corporation related to FCA allegations of bid-rigging and public corruption, among other things
  • Led a parallel civil investigation related to FCA allegations of improper bundling and upcoding of services by doctor
  • Provided training to DOJ Civil Division attorneys related to FIRREA and financial fraud investigations, generally

Prior Experience

  • U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., Commercial Litigation Branch, Fraud Section, Trial Attorney, 2015-2022
  • Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCoy, LLP, Washington, D.C., Litigation Associate, 2010-2015

Credentials

Education

Admissions

Court Admissions

Recognition

Awards

U.S. Department of Justice Civil Division Special Commendation Award, 2019

Professional & Community Involvement

Washington Bar Association, Young Lawyers Division

National Bar Association, Women Lawyers Division, Greater Washington Area Chapter

News & Insights

Events

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