Michael Kanovitz

Michael Kanovitz is a partner at Loevy & Loevy where he concentrates in class actions, constitutional law, and whistleblower protection under the federal and state False Claims Acts. His cases have resulted in verdicts and settlements of over $100 million to his clients. He was recently recognized for his outstanding litigation and trial skills in the Law Bulletin's prestigious 40-under-40 attorneys to watch.

On the national scene, Mr. Kanovitz is handling several cases brought by whistleblowers against former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. In Vance et al. v. Rumsfeld, Mr. Kanovitz represents two whistleblowers who were detained and tortured by U.S. officials after they reported on contractor corruption in the Iraq war. The case is the only case out of many that survived a motion to dismiss such claims against Mr. Rumsfeld.  In Doe v. Rumsfeld, Mr. Kanovitz is working with the Government Accountability Project (GAP), a whistleblower advocacy organization in Washington, D.C., on a case involving an American contractor who was held incommunicado for over nine months. Experts in constitutional law and legal educators have described these cases as groundbreaking.

Mr. Kanovitz particularly enjoys using his trial skills to assist qui tam whistleblowers with their False Claims Act cases when the government declines to intervene. He represents more than a dozen whistleblower clients in state and federal False Claims Act suits in jurisdictions across the country. His cases have made law supporting whistleblowers in mortgage finance, defense contracting, and environmental qui tams, among others.

In the area of constitutional law, Mr. Kanovitz is also lead counsel in two of the largest civil rights class actions suits in the nation.  This year, Mr. Kanovitz secured a settlement in Dunn v. City of Chicago for three classes of persons whose rights were violation by the Chicago Police Department. The settlement provides $16.5 million in compensation to victims and has produced substantial changes in the Department's treatment of arrestees. In Young v. County of Cook, Mr. Kanovitz proved at a jury trial that the Cook County Jail abused over 250,000 citizens by using violence and intimidation when strip searching them. The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit rejected the jail's attempt to appeal those findings earlier this year. In November 2010, Cook County settled the claims for more than $55 million.

In other civil rights litigation, Mr. Kanovitz recently obtained a $16 million jury verdict for a wrongfully-convicted man who was incarcerated for five and one-half years.  This is the largest per-year recovery on record.  The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed the jury's verdict in May of 2010.

In addition to his litigation work, Mr. Kanovitz is co-author of the textbook Constitutional Law, which is published by Lexis/Nexis and is now in its Eleventh Edition. The book is used to teach law enforcement officers throughout the country about the United States Constitution.

Mr. Kanovitz is a graduate of Brandeis University and the Cornell Law School, having received honors with both degrees.