Andrew Rainer

Andrew Rainer is an attorney with Brody, Hardoon, Perkins & Kesten, LLP, whose practice focuses in two areas:  representing Whistleblowers in cases brought under the federal and state False Claims Act, the Dodd-Frank securities whistleblower law, and the IRS tax fraud program, and representing property owners and municipalities in environmental and public health litigation.

Mr. Rainer brings to his representation of clients almost 35 years of experience, including service as an Assistant District Attorney, as an Assistant Attorney General, and as Counsel to the United States Senate Judiciary Committee.  He has also worked in private practice for over 20 years, and has been honored both for his work as a lawyer (Lawyer of the Year) and as a prosecutor (Prosecutor of the Year).  He earned the highest peer rating possible of AV Preeminent* from Martindale-Hubbell.

Whistleblower Cases. As a private lawyer, Mr. Rainer brought the first whistleblower suit against a government contractor for fraud on Boston's Big Dig, helping the federal and state governments recover almost $50 million. As an Assistant Attorney General, he also personally investigated, prosecuted, and resolved numerous False Claims Act cases. Mr. Rainer has worked one-on-one with most of the federal and state attorneys in Massachusetts who review whistleblower cases, and is in an ideal position to help a client who has information about fraud on the government to navigate the false claims process and recover a substantial reward.

Among the whistleblowers Mr. Rainer has worked with are:
    -   A driver for a concrete company who charged the company with selling the federal and state governments millions of dollars in off-spec concrete
    -   Former employees of an incinerator operator who reported that the company was regularly cheating on its municipal contracts by breaking the environmental laws
    -  City employees who discovered that a municipal hauling contractor was routinely cheating the city
    -  Employees of a sewer cleaning contractor who charged that the company was cheating on over a dozen state and local contracts

Mr. Rainer also has helped employees of two major contractors, Stone & Webster Engineering and Havens Steel Company, recover millions of dollars lost from their pension funds. 

As an experienced whistleblower attorney, Mr. Rainer has helped his clients bring lawsuits on the government’s behalf when they have knowledge that a person or company is committing fraud against the government.  He has additionally helped his clients bring claims to the government for investigation when they have knowledge that a person is committing fraud against a company.  Whistleblowers can receive a reward for helping the government recover the money in both situations. 

Mr. Rainer is well positioned to help clients navigate the legal issues that arise in whistleblower cases, such as drafting a court complaint, preparing information that needs to be provided to government investigators, assisting with job protection, and, ultimately, presenting a case if it goes to trial.  He has tried dozens of cases to verdict.  Should the case result in a settlement or judgment where the government receives money, the whistleblower is eligible to receive a percentage of the money recovered.  

Environmental Litigation.  Mr. Rainer has over 30 years of experience representing businesses, state and local governments, and individuals in a wide variety of environmental litigation, involving oil spills, hazardous materials and hazardous waste, groundwater contamination, air pollution, landfills, environmental permitting, PCBs, asbestos removal, lead paint, infectious diseases, public and private nuisance.

From February 2008 to June 2014, Mr. Rainer served as Chief of the Massachusetts Environmental Strike Force, a cooperative effort of the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, and Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, designed to investigate and prosecute the most serious environmental violations. At the Strike Force, Mr. Rainer worked closely with most of the state and federal officials in Massachusetts who enforce the environmental laws, and is therefore well positioned to help a client respond to and resolve environmental enforcement matters.

Mr. Rainer is licensed in Massachusetts, Florida and the District of Columbia, and admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit and the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. He graduated from Princeton University in 1979, and the New York University School of Law in 1982.  While in law school, he served as senior editor of the New York University Law Review, and after law school, clerked for U.S. District Judge Charles Richey.

A frequent speaker, lecturer and writer, Mr. Rainer is also actively involved in the community, including the following organizations: the Toxics Action Center, the Environmental League of Massachusetts, Conservation Law Foundation, Clean Water Action, Alternatives for Community and Environment, and The Alliance for a Healthy Tomorrow.

* AV®, AV Preeminent®, Martindale-Hubbell Distinguished and Martindale-Hubbell Notable are certification marks used under license in accordance with the Martindale-Hubbell certification procedures, standards and policies. Martindale-Hubbell® is the facilitator of a peer review rating process. Ratings reflect the anonymous opinions of members of the bar and the judiciary. Martindale-Hubbell® Peer Review Rating™ fall into two categories – legal ability and general ethical standards.