John Partridge, a Co-Chair of Gibson Dunn’s FDA and Health Care Practice Group, focuses on government and internal investigations, regulatory inquiries, white collar defense, complex litigation, and corporate compliance programs.

Mr. Partridge has particular experience with the False Claims Act and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”), including defending major corporations in investigations pursued by the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”).  He has represented clients in criminal and civil enforcement actions relating to alleged health care fraud and abuse.  His substantive experience includes cases involving allegations relating to, among other things, clinical trials, off-label promotion, sampling practices, importation of regulated products, and anti-kickback issues.  Among other current matters, Mr. Partridge is leading the defense of a multinational medical device company in an Anti-Kickback Statute-premised False Claims Act investigation relating to reimbursement support and marketing efforts, as well as a pharmaceutical company in a False Claims Act case based on purported fraud on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.  Along with colleagues at Gibson Dunn, Mr. Partridge wrote the criminal enforcement and pharmaceutical sampling chapters of PLI’s Pharmaceutical Compliance and Enforcement Answer Book 2019.  In 2018, LMG named Mr. Partridge “Best in Life Sciences” among its Americas Rising Stars.

Mr. Partridge also currently is defending a multinational medical device and pharmaceutical company in parallel DOJ and SEC securities fraud and FCPA investigations relating to the company’s activities in more than a dozen countries in Asia.  Previously, Mr. Partridge served as a member of an international team of Gibson Dunn lawyers assisting the compliance monitor appointed in connection with one of the largest FCPA settlements to date (Siemens AG).  His compliance monitoring work includes activities in Africa, Asia, Europe, and South America.  In addition to counseling multiple publicly traded corporations on government and internal investigations relating to potential FCPA issues, Mr. Partridge regularly advises clients on the structure and effectiveness of their anti-corruption compliance programs.

Among other government investigation engagements, Mr. Partridge has counseled clients on:

• An FCPA investigation relating to payment irregularities in Latin America;
• FCPA investigations relating to a client’s business activities in Russia and the Middle East;
• A False Claims Act investigation involving a medical device company’s alleged off-label promotion of one of its devices;
• A False Claims Act investigation involving a medical device company’s alleged efforts to deceive FDA with regard to the severity of a design issue impacting the efficacy of the company’s product;
• A False Claims Act investigation involving a pharmaceutical company’s sampling practices;
• A False Claims Act investigation involving a Fortune 500 hospital management company regarding an extensive national investigation;
• A grand jury investigation focusing on a former customer of a medical device company;
• An SEC investigation relating to the accounting and disclosures of a for-profit education company; and
• An SEC investigation focusing on the work of the independent auditors of a company that allegedly engaged in accounting fraud.

Mr. Partridge also has represented clients in a variety of matters before state and federal courts and at the trial and appellate levels.  Among other civil litigation matters, Mr. Partridge has represented:

• A pharmaceutical company in a False Claims Act case in federal court based on alleged violations of the Anti-Kickback Statute tied to sampling practices.
• A medical device manufacturer in a case involving alleged violations of, among other laws, California’s Unfair Competition Law and False Advertising Law.  Mr. Partridge persuaded a California state court to sustain demurrers without leave to amend on federal preemption grounds.
• A pharmaceutical company in a False Claims Act case in federal court based on purported violations of the Anti-Kickback Statute relating to product-support services, educational grants, and speaker events.
• A large energy company in multiple federal court civil actions aimed at exposing and preventing enforcement of a fraudulently obtained, multi-billion dollar foreign judgment.
• A retailer of home improvement and construction products in a series of administrative and trial-level matters in states across the country where the retailer was denied refunds of sales tax payments.

Mr. Partridge also has appellate experience.  In addition to appeals associated with certain of the cases listed above, his appellate matters include:

• Open Door Ministries v. Lipschuetz, No. 14-SC-787 (Colo. 2016), in which Mr. Partridge persuaded the Colorado Supreme Court to reject an intervenor’s argument that a faith-based ministry’s promissory estoppel case against the City and County of Denver was barred by the Colorado Governmental Immunities Act.
• Clyma v. Sunoco, Inc., 594 F.3d 777 (10th Cir. 2010), in which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit appointed Mr. Partridge as amicus curiae to brief the court on jurisdictional and First Amendment issues raised by a non-party’s appeal.

While seconded to the Denver City Attorney Office’s Prosecution and Code Enforcement Section, Mr. Partridge tried more than twenty criminal cases to juries or the court.

Mr. Partridge received his J.D., with distinction, from Stanford Law School in 2007.  While there, he served as an Executive Editor of the Stanford Law Review and was awarded the Law Review’s Board of Editors’ Award.  Mr. Partridge graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Dartmouth College in 2002 with a B.A. in History and Psychology.  Before joining Gibson Dunn, Mr. Partridge clerked for the Honorable David M. Ebel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit from 2007 to 2008.

Mr. Partridge is admitted to practice law in the states of California and Colorado, as well as in the U.S. Courts of Appeal for the Eighth and Tenth Circuits and the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado.  He serves as a member of Gibson Dunn’s Pro Bono and Hiring Committees.