John McKnight

John McKnight is a Partner in the Washington, DC office of Sanford Heisler Sharp and Co-Chair of the firm’s Whistleblower and Qui Tam Practice Group. He represents corporate whistleblowers who have exposed securities fraud and banking misconduct, as well as government contract procurement fraud under the False Claims Act, Dodd-Frank, and other federal enforcement statutes.

In a case resulting in $3.5 billion in government fines against Wells Fargo, Mr. McKnight represented a former Chief Security Officer who assisted the Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission in exposing Wells Fargo’s “fake account” scandal. In a separate $50 million whistleblower case, Mr. McKnight represented a former Director of Contracts at Navistar who alleged the parts manufacturer overcharged the Department of Defense in its purchase of mine-resistant vehicles.

Mr. McKnight writes frequently about the role of whistleblowers in cyber-fraud and digital financial markets. A member of the Maryland and District of Columbia bars, he regularly speaks on panels for the American Bar Association, the Federal Bar Association, and Taxpayers Against Fraud.

Mr. McKnight received his law degree from the University of Maryland School of Law. While at the University of Maryland, he interned with the Human Rights Team at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, and with the Honorable Henry H. Kennedy Jr. (Retired) of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the Honorable William Jackson of the District of Columbia Superior Court, and the Honorable Deborah Robinson, Magistrate Judge of the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia. He also participated in the University of Maryland’s International and Comparative Law Clinic in China, where he worked with actors in the Chinese microcredit industry.