JOE LOCASCIO has extensive experience defending the world’s largest healthcare and life sciences companies in the most complex False Claims Act (FCA) investigations and litigation in state and federal courts nationwide, including the United States Supreme Court. Joe regularly publishes on the FCA.
Joe was part of the team that secured a complete defense verdict in U.S. ex rel. Siegel v. Novo Nordisk Inc., a long-running, high-stakes, high-profile FCA suit in which the State of Washington and a relator alleged that Novo, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical manufacturers, caused the submission of false claims via kickbacks and off-label promotion. The case marked only the third time in the last decade that a pharmaceutical company took an FCA case to trial — and is the only such case in which the jury did not give the plaintiffs a huge award. For his role in the case, Law360 named Joe a “Legal Lion of the Week” in 2025.Joe also has extensive experience in administrative litigation within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and under the Administrative Procedure Act. Joe was part of the team that convinced a federal court to vacate central regulations implementing the No Surprises Act.
Joe graduated from Cornell University Law School with a concentration in public law. During law school, he served as articles editor of the Cornell International Law Journal. He was also a teaching assistant to two leading scholars, Professors Michael Dorf (Constitutional Law) and George Hay (Antitrust), and served as the student representative to the Faculty Appointments Committee. Joe received his B.A., with general and special honors, Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Chicago, where he majored in political science and minored in classical civilization.
Joe is active in community service. He was vice president for communications of the Cornell chapter of the International Refugee Assistance Project. He was also a trustee of the University of Chicago Community Service Fund.