Josh Levy

Practice Areas

White Collar Criminal Defense and Investigations

Congressional Investigations

Litigation

Career

For over 20 years, Mr. Levy has represented high-profile, high stakes clients under investigation, in litigation and in other Washington, DC controversies. He has created strategic defenses for these clients by managing legal, professional, political and reputational threats to achieve successful outcomes.

Having served two US Senators and having taught a seminar on "Congressional Investigations" for over 15 years at Georgetown Law, Mr. Levy has represented dozens of clients in response to inquiries from congressional committees. His practice often includes the representation of clients in matters where law, government and politics intersect.

A trial lawyer, Mr. Levy has helped clients navigate the litigation risks of their involvement in investigations and, when necessary, has successfully protected their legal rights and interests in court. Mr. Levy has helped clients quash multiple subpoenas and dismiss multiple complaints in federal court.

Mr. Levy frequently represents clients under investigation by grand juries and other government enforcement agencies.

Local and global community is of the utmost important to Mr. Levy. For example, he helped lead his law firm's investigation on behalf of the Rwandan Ministry of Justice into the role of the French government in the Genocide Against the Tutsi. In 2016, Mr. Levy He is on the board of the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, with which he helped investigate the torture of people incarcerated at the Special Management Unit (SMU), located at USP Thomson, resulting in the Federal Bureau of Prisons' closing of the SMU at USP Thomson, in February 2023. Mr. Levy also represented a young Black man whom the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) police assaulted and arrested while he was filming the arrest of a young Black woman, resulting in a favorable settlement against WMATA and a court order sealing the young man's arrest on grounds of actual innocence.

In 2014, Mr. Levy founded a law firm now called Levy Firestone Muse LLP, where he is a partner. Prior to doing so, he was a partner at Stein Mitchell LLP, counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security under Chair and Ranking Member Joseph I. Lieberman, counsel to U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer, an associate at Arnold & Porter, and a law clerk to the Hon. Joan A. Lenard, US District Court Judge for the Southern District of Florida.

Professional Memberships

Adjunct Faculty Member, Georgetown University Law Center

Board Member, Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs

Advisory Committee Member, Tzedek DC

Chairman of the Board, Global Action on Gun Violence

Publications

Steven M. Salky & Joshua A. Levy, Reforming Police Use of Deadly Force to Arrest, The Champion (Jun. 2020).

Joshua A. Levy, Lessons from the Private Enforcement of Health Care Fraud, American Criminal Law Review (Jan. 2016).

Elizabeth R. Parker & Joshua A. Levy, New Era, New Threats: Wrestling with Interstitial Actors, Michigan Journal of International law (Jan. 2000).

Expert in these Jurisdictions

Member of the DC and NY bars

Admitted to the US District Court for the District of Columbia

Admitted to the US District Court for the District of Maryland

Admitted to the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

Work Highlights

Representative matters include:

On behalf of the Government of Rwanda, Mr. Levy helped lead an investigation into the role of the French government in connection with the Genocide against the Tutsi, in Rwanda, resulting in a 600-page report.

On behalf of the Major League Baseball Players Association, Mr. Levy co-led an investigation into the conduct of certain agents arising out of the Biogenesis scandal.

Mr. Levy has also represented companies, non-profits and individuals under investigation. For example:

Mr. Levy has represented dozens of other companies and individuals in congressional investigations, including inquiries into the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol, the Covid-19 pandemic, Russia’s interference in the 2016 US election, Benghazi, Operation Fast & Furious, private security contracting in Afghanistan, and many other subject matters. Since 2007, Mr. Levy has co-taught a seminar on “Congressional Investigations” at Georgetown Law.

He represented Paula Broadwell, biographer to General David Petraeus, in Justice Department criminal investigations that resulted in no charges for her.

He represented Ray Curry, President of the United Auto Workers (UAW), in Justice Department criminal investigations that resulted in no charges for him. The UAW Ethics Ombudsman also cleared President Curry of any ethics violations.

He has represented several government officials and hospital, pharmaceutical and medical device company executives in Justice Department criminal investigations resulting in no charges for those clients.

A specialist in healthcare fraud law, Mr. Levy teaches “Healthcare Fraud and Abuse” at Georgetown Law. He has been involved in matters relating to pharmaceutical and medical device claims, hospital over-billing claims, Anti-Kickback Statute violations and Stark Law abuses. Mr. Levy’s experience with healthcare fraud matters have included complex negotiations with U.S. Attorneys Offices, the Department of Justice, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, and state agencies, and as well as the FDA and foreign regulatory agencies. For example, he worked with a team of attorneys on behalf of Dinesh Thakur, in his landmark False Claims Act case against Ranbaxy, producing the largest drug safety settlement against a generic drug company, in U.S. history.

As a litigator, Mr. Levy represented Fusion GPS and its principals in four RICO suits filed against them, all of which the courts have dismissed. See Trump v. Clinton, Case No. 22-cv-14102-DMM (SDFL Order on Motions to Dismiss Sept. 8, 2022); Nunes v. Fusion GPS, Case No. 1:19-cv-01148-RDA-TCB (EDVA Order of Dismissal with Prejudice Mar. 31, 2021); Nunes v. Fusion GPS, Case No. 1:19-cv-1148-LO-TCB (E.D.VA. Order of Dismissal Feb. 21, 2020); Halvorssen v. Simpson, Case No. 2:18-cv-2684 (ENV) (RLM) (E.D.N.Y. Order of Dismissal with Prejudice Aug. 26, 2019), affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (Mar. 18, 2020).

Mr. Levy also represented Fusion GPS and one of its principals, Glenn Simpson, in a defamation case filed against them by Russian oligarchs, Mikhail Fridman, Petr Aven and German Khan. That case is dismissed. Fridman v. Bean LLC, Case No. 1:17-cv-2041-RJL (D.D.C. Stipulation of Dismissal with Prejudice Mar. 18, 2022).

In a civil action alleging violations of the Federal Advisory Committee Act, Mr. Levy successfully moved to quash subpoenas served by a Canadian mining consortium on its political rivals, who fought for the protection of the Bristol Bay, Alaska watershed (home to the world’s largest wild sockeye salmon fishery) and against the “Pebble Mine” that would destroy it. See, e.g., Pebble Limited Partnership v. EPA, 310 F.R.D. 575 (D.Alaska 2015).

Mr. Levy has expertise in the False Claims Act, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the UK Bribery Act. He has conducted dozens of internal investigations, created compliance programs, trained employees and helped perform due diligence with regard to a company’s potential exposure under these statutes.

Education

Awards