Janet I. Levine

Janet I. Levine joined the litigation boutique Kendall Brill & Kelly LLP in 2018. She is a former deputy federal public defender who, as a white collar defense lawyer in private practice, has successfully represented corporations, politicians, judges, directors, officers, executives in a wide variety of industries.

She is a summa cum laude graduate of Loyola Law School and a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.

She changed firms after a decade at Crowell & Moring LLP.

"Working in a big firm at Crowell was great in many ways, but in my criminal practice it's nice to be in a smaller firm with fewer conflicts," she said.

Among all her clients, Levine added, "I love representing lawyers, and I've done so for 30 years. They represent probably my largest category of clients. Lawyer jokes aside, they make great clients."

Among them were David Boies and Boies Schiller Flexner LLP. In December 2021, Levine secured the dismissal of her clients from a lawsuit by actress Rose McGowan that arose from accusations against movie producer Harvey Weinstein. McGowan claimed Boies and his firm conspired with Weinstein to suppress her rape allegations. McGowan v. Weinstein et al., 2:19-cv-09105 (C.D. Cal., filed Oct. 23, 2019).

"We showed that the plaintiff's lawyers had not sufficiently alleged their RICO theory," Levine said. "They had a theory without facts. We actually won dismissal twice, the first time with leave to amend. I had a very happy client."

The remainder of 2022, Levine said, will largely be spent prepping for a federal trial set for October. Her client, Dr. Lester Zuckerman, the former chief medical officer of the National Spine & Pain Center, is accused with eight others of taking kickbacks to order genetic tests. U.S. v. Meshkin et al., 21-cr-00112 (C.D. Cal., filed June 9, 2021).

In August, the National Spine & Pain Center agreed to pay $5.1 million in restitution to Medicare as part of a criminal settlement for its role in the matter. It admitted that it entered into an arrangement with Proove Biosciences, Inc., a defunct genetic testing company, to unlawfully compensate physicians under the guise of a clinical research program, according to a press release from federal prosecutors.

"This is a multi-defendant, big fraud case with interesting issues and millions of documents," Levine said. "I'm enjoying learning about the facts behind the case."

In 2020, Levine negotiated a favorable resolution for former Los Angeles City Councilman Mitchell Englander, accused of witness tampering and other crimes in the ongoing corruption probe of city government. Englander pleaded guilty to a single false statement charge in exchange for a reduced 14-month sentence. U.S. v. Englander, 2:20-cr- 00035 (C.D. Cal., filed Jan. 16, 2020).

"The nice thing about criminal law is that things do have endings," Levine said. "It's nice to have this one in the rear-view mirror."

- John Roemer