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 criminal 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 in federal and state courts
throughout the country. Mr. Gouraige uses his skills, experience, and legal
knowledge to develop innovative approaches to solve client problems without necessarily
going to trial, although his trial skills have been highly praised.
Examples of Innovative
Approaches Used in Solving Clients’ Problems
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In a recent commercial mortgage foreclosure in New Jersey, Mr. Gouraige’s client, the defendant-mortgagor, asserted a defense of fraud by a third party who allegedly conspired with the mortgagee to defraud the defendant. In the second day of trial, in August 2015, after Mr. Gouraige announced that he would call the third party as the next witness, that person brokered a settlement that resulted in an agreement to pay-off the mortgage and to pay Mr. Gouraige’s client a substantial sum to settle claims over certain related properties.
- In a recent SEC investigation regarding an investment fund in the life insurance settlement business, Mr. Gouraige persuaded the staff of the Regional Office in Philadelphia not to recommend to the Commission filing of any charge against his client.
- With more than 30 criminal and civil trials, jury and non-jury, Mr. Gouraige is 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 praised Mr. Gouraige’s 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.” In his most recent public criminal representation, Mr. Gouraige was counsel to a former president of the United Nations General Assembly.
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 the chairperson 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). By appointment of the Mayor, Mr. Gouraige
served on the Judicial Advisory Committee of New York City under Mayor Rudolph
Giuliani.
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 and a recent article on insider trading has been
accepted for publication later in 2016 by the Rutgers University Law Review.