Hervé Gouraige is a Member of the Sills Cummis &
Gross Litigation Practice Group. Mr. Gouraige is a civil and criminal
litigator/trial lawyer who practices in the areas of white collar and
regulatory defense, securities litigation, federal and state RICO actions,
health care fraud litigation (False Claims Act and kickback cases), internal
corporate investigations, general commercial litigation, including class
actions, and antitrust litigation. He
has represented corporate and individual clients in all types of civil and
criminal matters (from foreclosure to sexual assault) in federal and state
courts throughout the country. In his most recent public criminal
representation, Mr. Gouraige was counsel to a former president of the United
Nations General Assembly.
Mr. Gouraige uses his skills, experience, and legal knowledge
to develop innovative strategies to solve client problems without necessarily
going to trial.
With more than thirty
(30) criminal and civil trials, jury and non-jury, Mr. Gouraige is also an
experienced trial lawyer whose courtroom skills have been highly praised. After obtaining an acquittal for his client
in a case in Salem, VA, the trial judge complimented his trial skills: “I might
say to your counsel sitting next to you that I have been around a long time,
some forty-six years at the bar, and I haven’t heard a finer argument than he
made.”
Mr. Gouraige served as an Assistant United States Attorney in
the Southern District of New York under U.S. Attorney Rudolph Giuliani
(1984-91). He handled criminal cases
involving business fraud, tax fraud, health care fraud, and national
security. In 1985, Mr. Gouraige was the
first Assistant designated to handle health care fraud cases in the Southern
District of New York. During his term as
Assistant U.S. Attorney, Mr. Gouraige was awarded the Superior Achievement
Award by the Department of Health and Human Services for significant
contribution in fighting fraud in the Medicare and Medicaid programs, and the
Department of Justice Director’s Award for Superior Performance for his
successful handling of a four-month bank fraud trial.
Mr. Gouraige is an active member of the bar and the community.
He is a former chairperson (and current emeritus member) of the
Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race New York City Dinner Committee. He has served as president of the Harvard Law
School Association of New Jersey. He is
a member of the Litigation Counsel of America, an invitation-only trial lawyer
honorary society, and a Trustee Emeritus (and former President) of the Board of
Trustees of the Newark School of the Arts.
He is a former member of the New Jersey and New York Rhodes Scholarship
Selection Committees. Mr. Gouraige has
served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Urban League of Hudson
County (New Jersey) and The Legal Aid Society in New York (2002 - 08).
Mr. Gouraige has taught trial advocacy for the National
Institute of Trial Advocacy at Hofstra University Law School, where he served
as a Team Leader. He has also taught
trial advocacy at Widener University School of Law and at Benjamin N. Cardozo
School of Law.
Mr. Gouraige lectures for the ABA, ALI-ABA, and PLI on civil
and criminal matters. He is an elected
member of the American Law Institute, and he has written a number of articles
for professional journals, including an article on insider trading published in
the Rutgers University Law Review.