Partners
Joanne M. Cicala
Joanne M. Cicala is a partner in our Texas office who concentrates on health care fraud and consumer litigation. Ms. Cicala has been with the firm since 1997 and serves as Special Assistant Attorney General to the State of Michigan, Special Counsel to the State of Iowa, and counsel to the City of New York and forty three New York Counties, in connection with ongoing Medicaid fraud and false claims act litigations and other matters arising out of the health expenditures of these state and local governmental entities.
Ms. Cicala also represents and advises numerous public employee health benefit funds and Taft Hartley funds on an array of issues related to their health care expenditures and relationships with Pharmacy Benefit Managers.
Ms. Cicala is a member of the National Association of Public Pension Fund Attorneys and the County Attorneys Association of the State of New York.
Some of Ms. Cicala’s recent, relevant experience includes:
■ Representation, as lead counsel, of the States of Michigan and Iowa as well as the City of New York and 43 New York counties in connection with individual Medicaid fraud actions in federal court. This litigation is ongoing;
■ Representation of the City of New York in federal antitrust proceedings against GlaxoSmithKline which allege that GlaxoSmithKline defrauded the United States Patent and Trademark Office in order to unlawfully extend their patents for Augmentin and Paxil;
■ Advising County Health Benefit Plans and Taft Hartley Funds on the services rendered by those with whom they contract for health care services, including pharmacy benefit managers;
■ Representation of an objector to the settlement in Reynolds v. Beneficial National Bank in the United States Northern District Court for the District of Illinois. Ms. Cicala and Kirby McInerney successfully persuaded the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and ultimately the district court to overturn the settlement in question, and were then appointed co-lead counsel to the class. Ms. Cicala and Kirby McInerney were lauded by the presiding judge for their “intelligence and hard work,” and for obtaining “an excellent result for the class.”
■ Representation, as lead and co-lead counsel, of consumer classes in connection with antitrust proceedings against Microsoft. These litigations resulted in settlements totaling nearly a billion dollars for consumers in Florida, Tennessee, West Virginia and Minnesota; and
■ Representation, as lead counsel, of a class of investors in Gerber v. Computer Associates International, Inc. a securities class action which succeeded in trial and resulted in a multimillion dollar recovery for the class.
Ms. Cicala is admitted to practice in the states of New York, New Jersey and Texas. She is also admitted to the United States District Courts for the Southern, Northern, Eastern and Western Districts of New York, the Western District of Texas and the United States Court of Appeals for the Second, Seventh and Eighth Circuits. She graduated from Georgetown University (B.S.F.S., 1987) and Fordham University Law School (J.D., 1994). She is fluent in Spanish.
Prior to joining Kirby McInerney, Ms. Cicala practiced with Lane & Mittendorf LLP (now Windels Marx Lane & Mittendorf, LLP), specializing in litigation. Prior to attending law school, she worked for a US-AID funded organization in Washington, DC on legislative development projects in Central America. Ms. Cicala also has extensive experience managing municipal welfare reform activities.
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