Altomease R. “Al” Kennedy is a Partner in the Washington, DC office of Sanford Heisler Sharp, LLP, a national law firm with offices in Washington, DC, New York, California, and Tennessee. She received her J.D. degree from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1975.
Ms. Kennedy has a long history of successful representation of whistleblower clients in cases arising under the False Claims Act and currently represents whistleblowers in a range of sealed and unsealed Federal and State False Claims Act False Claims Act/Qui Tam suits under investigation by the United States and other governmental stakeholders.
Ms. Kennedy also represents whistleblowers in active litigation and has served as co-lead counsel for whistleblowers in a series of successful actions alleging that office products companies were illegally selling products from non-compliant countries to the United States Government in violation of the Trade Agreements Act and several General Services Administration (GSA) policies. In addition, Ms. Kennedy was co-lead counsel for the Relator who was the Government Contracting Director for Network Appliance in a qui tam case that resulted in the then-largest GSA procurement fraud settlement in history. Ms. Kennedy represents whistleblowers in Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and SEC cases.
Ms. Kennedy also has amassed significant success as a litigator and trial lawyer in general public interest matters, including the successful representation of Washington, DC, residential electricity consumers before the DC Public Service Commission. She also has successfully represented plaintiffs in medical malpractice cases.
A member of the District of Columbia Bar and the Women’s Bar Association of the District of Columbia, Ms. Kennedy has served as secretary of the Qui Tam Litigation Subgroup of the American Trial Lawyers Association (ATLA). She was also a member of The Advisory Committee to the District of Columbia Bar Foundation. Ms. Kennedy is a former President of the Board of the Frederick B. Abramson Memorial Foundation, which provides financial aid to college-bound D.C. Public School graduates and stipends to lawyers working for public interest organizations. Ms. Kennedy also served two terms as a member of the Goucher College Board of Trustees and is a past Vice President of the Board of Directors of City Lights School.
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Prior to joining Sanford Heisler Sharp, Ms. Kennedy founded and was a Partner at McKnight and Kennedy LLC, from 2009-2014. From 1983 to 2009, she was a litigator at Ashcraft & Gerel LLP, where she advanced to partner. From 2000 to 2001, Ms. Kennedy was Special Assistant and Counsel to the President of The Village Foundation, rejoining Ashcraft & Gerel as Of Counsel in May 2001.
Before entering private practice, Ms. Kennedy was a member of the Office of the General Counsel for Potomac Electric Power Company. Before that, Ms. Kennedy was a trial attorney in the Litigation and Liquidation Division of the Economic Development Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce. In this position, she handled cases throughout the U.S. involving environmental issues, employment discrimination, and challenges to President Jimmy Carter’s stimulus effort. Before joining the U.S. DOC, she was a Research Associate for the National Urban League. A native of Cleveland, Ohio, she has now worked inside the beltway for four decades.
