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White Collar and Government Enforcement, Chair

Honors and Awards

Memberships and Affiliations

Co-Chair, ABA Qui Tam Substantive Committee, Criminal Justice Section’s White Collar Crime Committee

Past Co-Chair, ABA Criminal Law Section, Sub-Committee for White Collar Crime, Mid-Atlantic Region

Vice President, Federal Bar Association of Philadelphia, Criminal Law Committee

Vice Chair, White Collar Crime Committee, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers

Education

J.D., Georgetown University Law Center, 1985

  • Editor, The American Criminal Law Review

B.A., Amherst College, 1981, cum laude

Bar Admission(s)

Clerkship(s)

Photo of Christopher R. Hall

Christopher R. Hall

Partner
Philadelphia
Centre Square West
1500 Market Street, 38th Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19102-2186

As a former federal prosecutor, Christopher Hall represents corporations and individuals facing allegations of wrongful conduct. He assists clients during internal investigations, government criminal investigations, government civil enforcement actions, and related civil proceedings such as False Claims Act and securities fraud proceedings. Chris places particular emphasis on the healthcare, financial service, defense, and government contract industries. His subject matter experience within these industries includes wire/mail fraud, healthcare fraud and abuse, false claims, antitrust, securities fraud, environmental crimes, tax crimes, bank fraud, government contract fraud, export law violations, and public corruption. He has tried more than 30 cases to verdict in federal courts.

Chris has brought to trial tax evasion and money laundering prosecutions and spearheaded dozens of complex, multi-federal agency investigations. He also led the Justice Department’s investigation into the collapse of the Allegheny Health System, at the time the state's largest employer. In that matter, Chris spent two years immersed in issues of corporate accounting, manipulation of earnings through financial reporting, techniques for smoothing earnings, reserve setting, and the alleged misuse of charitable funds.

He also has experience with multi-agency, parallel criminal and civil investigations, including the off-label marketing of pharmaceutical drugs in violation of FDA statutes and regulations, and schemes to defraud Federal healthcare programs and private insurers through the submission of false and inflated claims for reimbursement and payment. Chris has a thorough and current understanding of the workings of the FDA, the HHS OIG, the Antitrust, Criminal, and Civil Divisions of the Department of Justice, the SEC, the IRS, HUD, EPA, and the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, and Labor.

In situations that warrant prompt and professional resolutions with the United States, Chris’s past negotiation of settlements on behalf of the federal government give him intimate familiarity with the complexities at hand and how best to proceed. He also has experience with crafting, implementing, and auditing industry-specific compliance programs that incorporate guidance provided by pertinent regulatory bodies, industry-adopted best practices and the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines.

Finally, Chris speaks Spanish fluently. He has traveled to South America for the Department of Justice to help the Bolivian government draft money laundering legislation. He has also conducted investigations in Spanish, and has explained the nuances of federal criminal law in that language.

Experience

  • Represented a financial advisory company and its president in a long-running (and continuing) probe of the public finance markets by the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the SEC.
  • Represented a senior official of a large government agency during a federal investigation of sexual and other misconduct by the agency's Executive Director and related civil litigation. A dismissal of two civil class actions filed against his client and several other senior agency officials was obtained.
  • Represented a healthcare provider alleged to have reused single-use medical devices during surgical procedures creating a risk of infection; conducted an emergency internal assessment, counseled the client on remedial and disciplinary steps, and assisted the client in a self disclosure to the State Medical Licensing Board.
  • Represented a federal grant recipient accused of misusing public funds obtaining a reversal of an order that had suspended the grantee from the federal grant program.
  • Assessed the sales and promotional practices of a global pharmaceutical company in response to a complaint by a former employee and helped the client design a remedial action plan. No federal investigation or whistleblower action has ensued to date.  
  • Represented an alleged “robo-signer” of mortgages in connection with a DOJ investigation and related civil class actions concerning lending practices by the nation’s largest banks and mortgage lending companies. The federal government has exercised its discretion not to proceed against the client. State and civil class actions continue.
  • Assessed the effectiveness of the compliance program and policies of a nationally recognized health system.
  • Represented a senior executive of a failed commodities broker in connection with a DOJ investigation, resulting in no criminal charges.
  • Represented a board member of a global medical device manufacturer in connection with a DOJ off-label marketing probe, resulting in no charges or disbarment of the board member.
  • Conducted an internal investigation of a debtor-in-possession to assess fraud and kickback allegations
  • Represented several current and former employees of a global pharmaceutical company in connection with a DOJ off-label marketing probe.
  • Represented an employee of a global medical device manufacturer in connection with a DOJ investigation of off-label promotion allegations, resulting in no charges.
  • Conducted a three-month internal investigation into an alleged false/improperly supported Contract Disputes Act (CDA) claim against the Navy by a publicly traded government contractor, on behalf of the Audit Committee of the company's Board of Directors.

Representative Prosecutions

In his role as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, Chris prosecuted a number of significant, complex matters including:

  • A government contracts fraud case in which a supplier to the United States admitted that it had misrepresented expenses in a cost-plus contract through a rebate scheme.
  • One of the first criminal healthcare cases brought to trial in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, for which he received the Director's Award from the Department of Justice for outstanding performance.
  • The conviction of a Department of Defense supplier on charges that it intentionally deceived and failed to pay subcontractors.
  • Several environmental criminal cases involving illegal disposal activities. These trials included the first environmental justice prosecution in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, which resulted in a guilty plea by an international conglomerate and a $1 million clean up of an under-served neighborhood in southwest Philadelphia.
  • A case involving illegal shipments of products to Iran in violation of the President's embargo.
  • The first predatory lending case brought to trial in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
  • Cases involving the theft of funds from a major local University and a major local hospital system.
  • A public corruption matter arising from the theft of monies from a program funded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
  • The conviction of a former, disgruntled employee under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act for compromising a company's firewalls and exposing proprietary information and confidential personal data to internet hackers.

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