Bios

William E. Jacobs

​Billy is a partner at WMC and an experienced litigator who has represented clients successfully in complex commercial disputes before federal and state courts across the country. He recently obtained a $100 million settlement for two federal whistleblowers in one of the largest settlements ever in a non-intervened False Claims Act case.

Billy helps clients in a wide variety of areas. His representative matters include:
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• Representing the relators in United States ex rel. Rigsby v. State Farm Fire & Casualty Co., No. 06-433 (S.D. Miss.), a False Claims Act case alleging that an insurer defrauded the federal government after Hurricane Katrina. The case involved multiple appeals to the Fifth Circuit and to the Supreme Court, which ruled unanimously for Billy’s clients. The case settled for $100 million.
  
  
• Representing a pharmaceutical wholesaler against a major pharmaceutical manufacturer’s claims that the company counterfeited its medications. After achieving a string of victories in motions practice, the case settled favorably.
  
  
• Representing the State of Mississippi in a dozen cases involving defendants who fraudulently foisted their own financial liabilities onto a public relief program, which recovered tens of millions of dollars for the State.
  
  
• Representing federal whistleblowers in United States ex rel. Beauchamp v. Academi Training Center, Inc., No. 1:11-cv-371 (E.D. Va.), which involved Academi’s (formerly Blackwater) alleged fraudulent submission of fabricated weapon qualification scores, and bills for unqualified personnel, to the U.S. Department of State.  Billy’s representation included helping to obtain a reversal in the Fourth Circuit of the trial court’s order dismissing the case, and discovery, motions practice, and oral argument before the trial court. The case settled after the court ruled in favor of Billy’s clients by denying Academi’s motion for summary judgment.
  
  
•  Recovering an impressionist masterpiece stolen from a holocaust victim by Hitler’s art dealer in Toren v. Federal Republic of Germany, 1:14-cv-359 (D.D.C.).
  
  

Billy is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, where he served as a Senior Editor on The Tax Lawyer.  Prior to joining the firm, he served as a volunteer law clerk for the Honorable James E. Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Before law school, he was a political fundraiser.

(202) 888-1666 
[email protected] 
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Education
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• J.D., Georgetown University (2013)
  
  
• M.A., Johns Hopkins University (2010)
  
  
• B.A., The George Washington University (2007)
  
  

Bar Memberships
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• Maryland
  
  
• District of Columbia
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