Joseph Trautwein joined Youman & Caputo as of counsel in August 2022. He focuses his practice on False Claims Act litigation involving healthcare fraud and abuse and other types of government contractor fraud. Mr. Trautwein is nationally recognized for his False Claims Act expertise and record-setting results. In his nearly 25 years of experience in high profile complex civil litigation, he has helped recover more than $5 billion of taxpayer dollars through settlements under the federal and state false claims act statutes.
Mr. Trautwein honed his skills fighting fraud during thirteen years of service with the United States Department of Justice. Mr. Trautwein was initially a Trial Attorney in DOJ’s Commercial Litigation Division in Washington, D.C. and then, from 2004 until 2010, he served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Civil Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. As an AUSA, Mr. Trautwein represented the United States in affirmative civil fraud cases involving the healthcare industry and military defense contractors. Most notably, Mr. Trautwein was the lead attorney in the False Claims Act case against Eli Lilly & Company for its illegal promotion of Zyprexa. The case resulted in a settlement of $1.415 billion, the largest healthcare settlement against a single defendant at that time.
In 2010, Mr. Trautwein left the DOJ to start a private practice devoted to representing individual whistleblowers in qui tam False Claims Act litigation. Since then, he has represented hundreds clients in cases involving primarily health care fraud, and he has served as co-counsel (both to Youman & Caputo and other law firms) in False Claims Act cases that have returned more than $1 billion to federal and state government treasuries. Mr. Trautwein still maintains his own practice in addition to serving as of counsel to the firm.
Mr. Trautwein has received numerous awards from federal and state agencies for his work including the U.S. Attorney General’s Award for Fraud Prevention. He is a frequent lecturer on healthcare fraud prevention to various legal and healthcare organizations nationwide, and he is formerly an adjunct professor at Widener Law School.
Mr. Trautwein began his career as a civil engineer. Prior to becoming an attorney, he worked as a construction engineer providing litigation support to attorneys in the government and the private sector in defense of construction claims. After graduating from law school, he clerked for the Honorable Eric G. Bruggink, United States Court of Federal Claims, Washington, DC.
Mr. Trautwein lives in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania with his wife and three children.
