Michael K. Loucks

Prior to joining Skadden in 2010, Mr. Loucks had most recently served as acting U.S. attorney and first assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts.

During his career, Mr. Loucks has participated in more than 30 noteworthy federal and state jury and bench trials, the vast majority as lead counsel, including those involving:

• business executives in public and private companies accused of commercial bribery and fraud;
• public officials accused of bribery and extortion;
• corporate executives in pharmaceutical and medical device companies accused of paying kickbacks to health care professionals and engaging in off-label marketing;
• health care professionals accused of receiving kickbacks, committing billing fraud and participating in fraud in connection with clinical trials;
• physicians and a major health care insurer in a Sherman Act monopolization case;
• seditious conspiracy charges; and
• terrorists accused of bombings, bank robberies, murder and attempted murder throughout the Eastern United States.

Since joining Skadden in 2010, Mr. Loucks’ practice has focused on representing companies in government criminal investigations, in False Claims Act and other civil litigation, in regulatory matters with the Food and Drug Administration and the Office of Inspector General, and in Foreign Corrupt Practices Act investigations. He has represented companies and individuals around the world from a wide variety of industries, including health care, pharmaceutical and biotech, medical devices, energy and natural gas, transportation and shipping, private equity, publishing and insurance, among others.

He has advised on corruption and prosecution matters in Latin America, Europe and Asia, and has represented clients under U.S. federal and state investigations in numerous jurisdictions. His government investigations work has involved off-label promotion and anti-kickback issues; best price and average sales price reporting issues; numerous Medicare issues, including billing, secondary payer and Part C risk adjustment payment system matters; data submissions to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services; consumer fraud issues; HIPAA data breaches and violations; alleged violations of the Clean Air Act; and FCPA issues in a variety of industries.

Of note, Mr. Loucks has successfully achieved the termination — without prosecution, the pursuit of a civil action or the execution of a settlement agreement — of numerous government investigations, both state and federal. He also has assisted in due diligence reviews in mergers and acquisitions involving nursing homes, assisted living facilities, hospitals, pharmaceutical benefit managers and retail pharmacies, and hospitals.

Before serving as acting U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts, Mr. Loucks had a long history in the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s Office. He was first assistant U.S. attorney (2005-2009); white collar crime section chief (2005); health care fraud unit chief (1997-2004); and health care fraud coordinator (1992-2004), where he established the office’s health care fraud practice and was involved in major prosecutions, including those involving pharmaceutical and medical devices. He was a nationally recognized health care fraud prosecutor, handling many of the department’s most high-profile health care fraud prosecutions of the past two decades. He joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office in 1985, after five years in private practice.

While acting U.S. attorney and first assistant, he reviewed and approved all major prosecutions and civil matters, including False Claims Act cases, environmental prosecutions (including Clean Water Act discharge cases), Arms Export Control Act (AECA) and major export and embargo-related criminal prosecutions, major public corruption prosecutions, terrorism investigations and major securities fraud prosecutions. The AECA investigative matters that he supervised and the cases in which he authorized prosecutions included alleged export of prohibited weapons and nuclear reactor components; alleged export of weapons and missile systems components; and alleged export of combat aircraft components (tachometers used in C-130 military flight simulators). He also supervised an undercover operation that lasted multiple years, culminating in the arrest of two Chinese nationals and the indictment of their company (the defendants were convicted in 2010).

Mr. Loucks speaks frequently worldwide at seminars and symposia on prosecutions, corporate compliance and litigation-related issues associated with the health care, pharmaceutical and medical devices sectors. He has lectured and taught classes at numerous law schools, including Harvard Law School, on presentation of trials, use of expert witness testimony and effective cross examination. He also writes extensively on health care topics and is the co-author of Prosecuting and Defending Health Care Cases, the leading treatise in the area.

He has been recognized for his achievements by several government agencies, including receiving multiple awards or citations from the Department of Justice, including the Exceptional Service Award, the Distinguished Service Award, and the Fraud Prevention Award in 2002; the Food and Drug Administration, including a special citation from the commissioner; the Secret Service; the Department of Health and Human Services; the U.S. Postal Service; the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts; and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, including special citations from two directors of the bureau.

Mr. Loucks was named as a 2019 National Law Journal Health Care Law Trailblazer and repeatedly has been selected for inclusion in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business and The Best Lawyers in America, which named him its 2019 Litigation - Regulatory Enforcement (SEC, Telecom, Energy) Lawyer of the Year. He also has repeatedly been named as a Non-IP Litigation & Enforcement Star in LMG Life Sciences. In 2011, he received the Burton Award for Legal Achievement, which recognizes excellence in legal scholarship and was selected in the Boston Business Journal’s inaugural Who’s Who in Legal Services.