A Year Of The Granston Memo Policy In Practice

In January 2018, the legal community was buzzing with news of a leaked U.S. Department of Justice document now known as the “Granston memo.” In the memo, Michael Granston, director of the DOJ’s Civil Fraud Section, explains that the DOJ should seek dismissal of whistleblower actions brought under the False Claims Act if the suits do not serve the federal government’s interests. The Granston memo generated a flurry of questions about how DOJ lawyers would — or would not — act on the principles the memo outlined, and what the proposed policy might mean for the future of False Claims Act litigation. A year later, answers to those questions are beginning to emerge and offer a glimpse of what to expect in 2019.