Traci L. Buschner
Traci Buschner is senior counsel at Grant & Eisenhofer. A former state prosecutor, Ms. Buschner has spent over 15 years representing plaintiffs in complex litigation ranging from class actions to government contract fraud under federal and state false claims acts. She has been involved in multi-million dollar recoveries on behalf of workers under the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act and has served as counsel in False Claims actions bringing billions of dollars to the United States Government.
Ms. Buschner represented the lead whistleblower, Meredith McCoyd, in a False Claims Act case against Abbott Laboratories, which resulted in a settlement of over $1.5 billion in 2012. The case involved Abbott’s illegal efforts to promote an anti-seizure medication, Depakote, through off-label marketing, misbranding and paying physicians to write prescriptions. The settlement was one of the largest recoveries by the United States government under the False Claims Act against a pharmaceutical company. The lawsuit stems from charges that Abbott heavily marketed Depakote for treatments outside the FDA’s approved usage, including to nursing homes as a method of sedating elderly residents, including those with Alzheimer’s and dementia and, in the process, allowed nursing home facilities to maintain lower staff-to-patient ratios. Ms. McCoyd’s law suit also alleged that Abbott encouraged doctors to prescribe Depakote to young children for a variety of psychological disorders outside the FDA’s approved uses.
Ms. Buschner represented Lois Graydon, a nursing professional and former Sales Manager, in a False Claims Act case resulting in a $1.04 billion settlement against GlaxoSmithKline (“GSK”) in 2012. Ms. Graydon was one of the relators who alleged that GSK made false and misleading statements about Advair’s safety and efficacy, thus enabling false or fraudulent claims to Medicare, Medicaid, and other reimbursement programs.
Ms. Buschner also represented one of the six main whistleblowers in False Claims Act litigation against Pfizer, Inc., which in 2009 resulted in the Government’s recovery of $2.3 billion. Ms. Buschner’s practice has involved representation of some of the nation’s largest labor unions and their members. Prior to joining Grant & Eisenhofer, she was an attorney with the Washington, DC office of one of the nation’s largest personal injury and labor firms and also practiced with an Austin, Texas firm where she represented victims of asbestos exposure.
On behalf of the Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers International Union (OCAW), AFL-CIO, Ms. Buschner was actively involved in environmental litigation which led to Secretary of Energy, William Richardson, canceling a project to recycle radioactive nickel at the Oak Ridge, Tennessee K-25 Nuclear Weapons Complex. The documentation of her efforts to expose faulty government contracting at Department of Energy Nuclear weapons sites was published in The Environmental Forum, Volume 17, No. 6, November/December 2000.
Ms. Buschner graduated from Miami University in 1990, and received her J.D. from the University of Louisville in 1995.