SUZANNE E. DURRELL BIOGRAPHY

Following a distinguished twelve year career with the United States Department of Justice, Ms. Durrell is now in private practice representing whistleblowers and handling False Claims Act litigation.

She associates with attorney Robert M. Thomas, Jr. of Thomas & Associates in Boston for joint  representation of qui tam relators.  She has authored two articles on the False Claims Act and has spoken at many bar association, Department of Justice and other conferences.

Ms. Durrell is the former Chief, Civil Division of the United States Attorney's Office in Boston, Massachusetts.  She supervised all of the qui tam and False Claims Act litigation in that office which was one of the national leaders in numbers of cases and recoveries.  She also prosecuted a number of cases, most notably, the five qui tam cases and investigation against National Medical Care, Inc./Fresenius that resulted in a record $486 million settlement (January 2000).

During her career, she has received several honors, including the Attorney General's Award for Exceptional Service, the most prestigious recognition bestowed by the Department of Justice.  Ms. Durrell also served as a Deputy Associate Attorney General at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.

Prior to joining the U.S. Attorney's Office in 1989,  Ms. Durrell served as an Assistant Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for five years.  While there, she handled over 200 cases in state and federal trial and appellate courts, including landmark cases establishing the state law rights of mentally ill and mentally retarded individuals to live in community-based group homes, and of physically disabled individuals to have access to public buildings. 

She also authored amici curiae briefs filed in the United States Supreme Court by the Attorneys General of Massachusetts and other states.

Ms. Durrell began her legal career as an associate at the Boston law firm of Hill & Barlow.  At the firm, she successfully tried several cases in state and federal courts, and won a case in the United States Court of Appeals establishing certain constitutional rights of prisoners.

Ms. Durrell is a cum laude graduate of Georgetown University Law Center (1978) and graduated with honors from Swarthmore College (1975). 

Cases and Specialties