Rick Robinson began his legal career in the Litigation Group of Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P., where, beginning in 1982, he represented a wide variety of corporations and their officers in government investigations and white-collar criminal cases. During this time, he participated in a number of high-profile public corruption cases.

In the late 1980s, the federal government publicly announced that the investigation and prosecution of health care fraud and abuse would be one of its top law enforcement priorities. Thereafter, the firm's health care clients began turning to Rick to counsel and defend them in this new environment of increased regulation and scrutiny.

Rick combines the skills he developed as a trial lawyer with a broad knowledge of administrative law and health care regulations to defend our health care clients in government audits and investigations. He employs the same skills and knowledge to help our clients avoid unwanted scrutiny by working with them to design regulatory compliance programs and by advising them on a multitude of voluntary disclosure issues. Rick also has represented many of our clients in litigation affirmatively challenging regulations and policies adopted by government agencies.

Rick is now the partner-in-charge of the Health Law Practice in Fulbright & Jaworski's Washington, D.C. office. His cases cover all phases of trial and appellate practice in both criminal and civil cases, including qui tam and "whistle blower" lawsuits under the federal False Claims Act.

Rick's clients include hospitals, academic medical centers, managed care organizations, pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers, clinical laboratories, physicians and other health care providers. He also represents major corporations and their officers in white-collar criminal cases.

During the Iran-Contra Affair, Rick was a member of the trial team that successfully defended National Security Advisor John M. Poindexter.

His recent cases include:

• Representation of national retail pharmacy chain in coordinated federal and state investigations of dispensing practices affecting Medicaid claims.
• Representation of academic medical centers, hospitals and health centers in federal and state investigations regarding "72-hour rule," pneumonia DRG coding, unbundling of lab charges, teaching physician billing rules, and implantation of non-FDA approved medical devices.
• Representation of a national home health care company in several False Claims Act cases, including whistleblower lawsuits, regarding Medicaid and Medicare cost reports.
• Representation of an international medical device manufacturer in a federal grand jury investigation into company's financial relationships with surgeons.
• Representation of a national emergency room staffing company in False Claims Act litigation involving coding of evaluation and management services.
• Representation of several hospitals in class action litigation involving charges to uninsured patients.
• Representation of teaching hospitals in antitrust litigation regarding stipends paid to medical residents.
• Advising several clients on internal investigations and voluntary disclosures regarding pharmaceutical product pricing affecting government programs.
• Creation and implementation of compliance programs for academic medical centers, hospitals and health systems, home health companies, physician groups, and medical device manufacturers.

• American Bar Association
  • Criminal Justice Section
    • White Collar Crime Committee
      • Health Care Fraud Subcommittee
• American Health Lawyers Association
• District of Columbia Bar
• Maryland Bar
• National Association of College and University Attorneys

• Chambers & Partners, top ranking for healthcare law in Washington, D.C. (2005 - 2008 and 2010)
• "The Top 100 Washington, D.C. Super Lawyers List," Law & Politics (2009)
• "Best Lawyers in the United States," Healthcare, The Best of the U.S. LLC (2006, 2007 and 2008) 
• "Legal Elite,” Greater Washington, D.C. Area, SmartCEO magazine (2006)
• “Outstanding Fraud and Compliance Lawyer,” Nightingale's Healthcare News (2004)

• "Strategies for Reducing Relator Attorney Fees in False Claims Act Qui Tam Actions," Compliance Today - Health Care Compliance Association, December 2009
• Co-author with Lara Parkin, "Medical Error Reporting: Maintaining Confidentiality in the Face of Litigation," The Handbook of Patient Safety Compliance, Jossey-Bass, 2005
• "Managing Financial Conflicts of Interest in Human Subjects Research," NACUA Publications Series, February 2004
• "Where to Start with Stark II," The Pastin Report on Health Care Compliance, December/January 2001
• "The State of Stark: The Stark II Statute and Regulations as We Enter 2002," The Pastin Report on Health Care Compliance, November/ December 2001
• "Stark Law Update," The Pastin Report on Health Care Compliance, July 2000
• "What Every Compliance Officer Should Know About the Stark Self-Referral Law," The Pastin Report on Health Care Compliance, June 1999
• "'Project Bad Bundle': Government Misuse of the False Claims Act," The Healthcare Fraud and Abuse Newsletter, March 1998
• "A Health Lawyer's Guide to Search Warrants," The Health Lawyer, October 1997
• "Self-Reporting Medicare and Medicaid Overpayments," Healthcare Financial Management, April 1997
• "What is a Board's Liability for Not Adopting a Compliance Plan," Healthcare Financial Management, September 1997

• Panelist, "Compliance: Defense of Government Investigations," Fulbright Eighth Annual Health Law Symposium, Austin, Texas, February 3, 2012
• Panelist, "D.C. Update," Fulbright Eighth Annual Health Law Symposium, Austin, Texas, February 2, 2012
• "Governance Issues and the Role of the Compliance Officer," Legal Issues Boot Camp for Compliance Professionals, Houston, Texas, June 7-8, 2011
• "What Every Compliance Officer Needs to Know About Human Research Protection," 13th Annual Compliance Institute, Health Care Compliance Association, Las Vegas, Nevada, April 28, 2009
• "FCPA Compliance:  What You Don't Know Can Hurt You," AdvaMed Conference, April 16, 2009
• Co-presented with Kevin W. Yankowsky and Laurie Weiss, "Great Expectations: Applying Enterprise Risk Management and Cost Control Approaches to Large Data Volumes in the Healthcare Industry," Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P. Web Seminar, February 12, 2009
• "Recognizing Current Government Enforcement Trends," ACI's 3^rd National Conference on Internal Investigations, American Conference Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, June 25, 2008
• "Ensuring the Effectiveness of Your Compliance Program in Light of Changing Regulations," Symposium on Healthcare Fraud Investigations, American Conference Institute, Washington, DC, April 2, 2008
• "Stark II Phase III Final Rule," Best Compliance Practices Forum, Health Ethics Trust, Alexandria, Virginia, November 6, 2007
• "E-discovery and Record Retention Issues for Health Institutions, A Practical Perspective," AHLA In House Counsel Program, June 2007
• "Recent Life Sciences CIAs: Novel Obligations and Consequences," Life Sciences Law Institute, American Health Lawyers Associations, San Francisco, California, April 26, 2007
• "Navigating Sensitive Issues When Investigating Alleged Board or Executive Level Misconduct," 5th Annual Corporate Counsel Forum on Conducting and Responding to Investigations, American Conference Institute, New York, New York, April 24, 2007
• "Clinical Trial Improvements," The Food and Drug Law Institute Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C., April 5-7, 2006
• "Quality of Care and False Claims Act Liability," American Bar Association, Emerging Issues in Healthcare Law, Tucson, Arizona, February 22-24, 2006
• "Enforcement and Compliance Trends," Best Compliance Practices Forum, Health Ethics Trust, Alexandria, Virginia, November 14, 2005
• "Enforcement and Compliance Roundtable," American Bar Association, Washington Healthcare Summit, Washington, D.C., October 20, 2005
• "Assessing Compliance Plan Effectiveness: Why It Matters," Council of Ethical Organizations, Alexandria, Virginia, April 6, 2005
• "Class Actions in the Health Care Industry," 2nd National In-House Counsel Forum on Defending & Managing Class Actions and Other Complex Litigation, San Francisco, California, March 8, 2005
• Moderator, "Direct-to-Consumer Advertising by Medical Device Manufacturers," Annual Meeting of the Advanced Medical Technology Association, Dana Point, California, March 4, 2005
• "Handling Complex Litigation in the Healthcare Industry,"  6th Annual Conference on Emerging Issues in Health Law 2005, ABA Health Law Section, February 2005
• "Primer on Human Subject Committees and IRBs," Annual Meeting, National Association of College and University Attorneys, Minneapolis, Minnesota, June 2003
• "What's New in Research Regulation and Compliance," Building the Clinical Research Compliance Program, Council of Ethical Organizations, Houston, Texas, June 2003
• "Informed Consent: Legal and Ethical Issues," Building the Clinical Research Compliance Program, Council of Ethical Organizations, Houston, Texas, June 2003
• "Medical Errors and Risk Management," 2003 National Continuing Legal Education Conference, Law Education Institute, Aspen, Colorado, January 2003
• "Reimbursement Rules and Compliance Risks for Locum Tenens Services," Annual Meeting, National Association of Locum Tenens Organizations, Chicago, Illinois, October 2002
• "Research Compliance," Fraud and Compliance Forum, AHLA, Washington, D.C., September 2002
• "Hot Lines and Hot Potatoes: The Ethical Challenges of Managing Conflicts Among Institutions, Whistleblowers and Suspects," Annual Meeting, National Association of College and University Attorneys, Boston, Massachusetts, June 2002
• "Clinical Trials: Protecting Research Subjects and Managing Financial Conflicts of Interest," Healthcare Financial Management Association Region IV Educational Conference, Washington, D.C., May 2002
• "Washington Update," 6^th Annual Texas Higher Education Law Conference, Denton, Texas, March 2002
• "Quality of Care and the False Claims Act," Health Care Compliance Association Region VI Conference, Ft. Worth, Texas, February 2002

1982 - J.D., honors, Duke University School of Law
1979 - B.A., honors, Political Science and English, Duke University

Rick is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia and Maryland. He is a member of the Bar of the United States Supreme Court, the United States Courts of Appeals for the Fourth, Fifth, and Eleventh, District of Columbia and Federal Circuits, and numerous federal district courts.