Representing the Fired Whistleblower: Retaliation Claims, Muzzling Agreements, and the Qui Tam Upside

Sarah Chu, Senior Litigation Counsel | Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight, LLP

Sarah Chu represents whistleblowers in qui tam matters under the False Claims Act as Senior Litigation Counsel at Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight, LLP, where her practice also includes employment discrimination cases. Working alongside firm colleagues, she has represented whistleblowers reporting health care fraud such as upcoding and kickbacks, procurement fraud through bid-rigging, misrepresented costs and discounts under best pricing requirements, false certifications of cybersecurity compliance, and SEC fraud. She has also represented an executive who faced retaliation after reporting potential FCA violations.

• Education & Credentials

Sarah earned her law degree from the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, where she received the CALI Excellence Award in Health Law: Fraud and Abuse. At Maryland she sat on the Moot Court Board, was Class Representative of the Student Government Bar Association, and worked as a student attorney in the Mediation Clinic. Her law school summers were spent interning for the Honorable Clayton Greene, Jr. of the Maryland Court of Appeals and the Honorable Nancy Purpura in Baltimore County, and she was a Research Assistant to Professor Richard Boldt. She holds a Bachelor of Arts with Honors from Boston University. Sarah was admitted to the Maryland bar in 2019, is admitted before the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland and the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Columbia, and practices in the District of Columbia under the supervision of H. Vincent McKnight Jr. She is also a Maryland-certified court-designated mediator.

• Recognition & Leadership

Sarah was a 2023 selectee for the Lawyers of Color “Hot List.” She serves on the Executive Committee of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association.

• Professional Involvement

Sarah writes regularly on whistleblower protection and enforcement. Her articles include “How Are We Doing in Protecting Whistle-Blowers From Retaliation?” in the Trends and Developments section of the Chambers and Partners 2024 Employment Guide; “Are Employees (and Other Whistleblowers) Protected from Retaliation?” for Chambers and Partners (July 22, 2022); and “The Need for Clarity: Whistleblowers in an Opaque, Digital World” in Global Data Review (June 2022). She has co-authored firm commentary on customs fraud enforcement under the False Claims Act and on South Korea’s tax whistleblower program, and has written on the role of whistleblowers in cybersecurity and on combating digital fraud.

• Experience

Before joining Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight, Sarah was an Associate in the qui tam and labor and employment practices of a civil litigation firm, representing whistleblowers nationwide in sealed investigations and in unsealed litigation under the FCA. Her major cases include the International Vitamin Corporation matter, in which the complaint alleged False Claims Act violations arising from evaded customs duties on imported nutritional supplements from China, and which ended with the company agreeing to pay the government $22.865 million. Before law school, she handled press and legislative work for members of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, an experience that led her to pursue a legal career.

Frank Xu, Senior Litigation Counsel | Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight, LLP

Frank Xu is an attorney at Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight, LLP, in Washington, D.C., where he represents employees nationwide in whistleblower, qui tam, and employment discrimination matters. His practice is devoted exclusively to individual clients, with a particular focus on False Claims Act litigation and also protecting whistleblowers who face retaliation for reporting misconduct.

• Education & Credentials

He received his J.D. with honors from The George Washington University Law School. There, he served as managing editor of the George Washington Journal of Energy and Environmental Law. Frank is also a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/US). His privacy background informs his work on cases involving technical evidence and corporate disclosures, as well as his efforts to protect whistleblower confidentiality. He rigorously analyzes technical evidence, safeguards client anonymity and shields courageous insiders from retaliation to ensure their voices drive maximum impact.

• Recognition & Leadership

Frank has been named a Rising Star in Washington, D.C., by Thomson Reuters for 2024 through 2026.

• Professional Involvement

Frank is a member of the District of Columbia, New York, and Maryland bars.

• Experience

Working with a team of Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight attorneys, Frank has represented clients including: an IT analyst who was retaliated against after reporting fraudulent corporate conduct, an employee who was terminated after reporting data privacy violations in the workplace, a finance associate who was retaliated against after observing fraudulent trading activity a driver who was retaliated against after reporting unlawful wage violations,

Before joining Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight, Frank completed a clerkship for the Honorable William M. Jackson of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.

SESSION 1 – Litigating Whistleblower Retaliation Claims and Challenging Anti-Reporting Separations Agreements | Frank Xu and Sarah Chu| 2:30pm – 3:30pm

This session covers the full litigation lifecycle of a whistleblower retaliation claim under SOX, Dodd-Frank, the False Claims Act, and parallel federal and state statutes, from OSHA intake through federal district court de novo review. Attorneys will learn how to identify and challenge anti-reporting provisions in separation agreements under SEC Rule 21F-17, the DOJ/OSHA NDA joint statement, and emerging state law frameworks. Attendees will leave with a working framework for layering federal and state claims, spotting muzzling agreement red flags, and applying the Supreme Court’s 2024 burden-shifting ruling in Murray v. UBS to active matters.

BREAK | 3:30pm – 3:40pm

SESSION 2 – Spotting, Valuing, and Capturing Qui Tam Cases from Whistleblower Intakes | Frank Xu and Sarah Chu | 3:40pm – 4:40pm

This session teaches plaintiff-side attorneys how to identify, evaluate, and strategically develop qui tam False Claims Act cases discovered during whistleblower client intakes. Attendees will learn sector-by-sector fraud indicators, case valuation mechanics under 31 U.S.C. § 3730(d), and the legal landmines — including the public disclosure bar, first-to-file rule, and the pending Appointments Clause challenge — that can kill a case before it is filed. Attorneys leave with a working intake checklist, valuation framework, and litigation posture for both government-intervened and declined qui tam matters. The session also addresses how to coordinate a sealed qui tam with a parallel § 3730(h) retaliation claim and the severance negotiation that often comes first.