Our Team

Adam Augustine Carter
Washington, District of Columbia
Principal

Adam Augustine Carter, Principal

Adam Carter is a seasoned courtroom attorney having won cases at trial and on appeal.  He specializes in the representation of employees and whistleblowers, as he has for most of his 20 year career as a Washington, DC-based litigator.  He has been praised by clients, counsel and courts alike for his effective advocacy and his tremendous problem solving abilities.   Mr. Carter is very experienced representing employees who bring claims against their employers involving wrongful termination, retaliation, contract disputes, employment discrimination, Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), age, race, religious, ethnic, disability or sex discrimination, for violations of USERRA, FMLA, and for violations of other federal and/or state civil rights laws.  He has handled matters in virtually every local court and arbitral forum.

Mr. Carter represented Linda Weintraub in her lawsuit against the Mental Health Authority of St. Mary’s County, Inc.  Weintraub had alleged she was retaliated against for sticking up for a co-worker who had been a victim of sexual harassment.  See Weintraub v. Mental Health Authority of St. Mary’s, Inc., 2010 WL 4868095 (D. Md. Nov. 23, 2010).

Mr. Carter’s significant experience defending individuals in white collar criminal cases and investigations gives him a tremendous advantage in representing qui tam whistle-blowers and witnesses in cases brought under the False Claims Act since the legal issues often overlap and the development of the factual record involves many of the same skills.  He has represented dozens of qui tam relators in bringing their claims to the attention of Government investigators under seal and in helping them keep their jobs after they are suspected of investigating fraud.

He has advised hundreds of executives on contractual matters, during compensation and benefit negotiations, and regarding both termination and non-competition restrictions.  One of Mr. Carter’s specialties is in dealing with the complex problems that arise when a family business or a closely held corporation is coming together or splitting apart.  Such cases are often minefields to determine the facts and the legal issues laced with the emotions of the client.  Mr. Carter is expert at listening to his clients and their families and in getting to the heart of the problem.

Not long ago, Mr. Carter won a federal jury trial involving an FMLA retaliation claim, and he helped another client win a significant discrimination case against her employer resulting in a considerable raise, various court ordered job protections for the employee, and a 100% fee recovery awarded by the court.  Mr. Carter also won a $1 million jury verdict in the Circuit Court of Montgomery County for a client who had accused her employer of sexual harassment that took the form of a hostile work environment.  He has won appeals in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit involving an employee who wanted a federal court to review his SOX complaint, a victim of age discrimination, and a lawyer who was being mistreated by the federal agency before whom he practiced.

Another area of expertise for Mr. Carter is the federal statute that protects members of the Armed Forces – the Uniformed Services Employment and Re-employment Rights Act (USERRA).  He has handled a number of cases involving substandard positions upon re-employment, and protections of benefits upon deployment.

A member of the Annual Convention Committee of the National Employment Lawyers Association (NELA) for several years, Mr. Carter has been honored by his peers to speak on various subjects including attorneys fee petitions, and ways to anticipate and counter popular strategies of defense counsel in litigating employment cases.

Mr. Carter is a graduate of Georgetown University and Georgetown University Law Center.  He served as law clerk to the Honorable Oliver Gasch of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.  He is admitted to practice law before the District of Columbia, Virginia, and Maryland bars, and numerous federal courts around the nation including the United States Supreme Court.  He is a member of NELA, the Metropolitan Washington Employment Lawyers Association, the Barristers, and he is an active participant in the Archdiocesan Pro Bono Legal Network in Washington, DC.

Areas of Practice:

Labor and Employment Law
Civil and Criminal Litigation
Whistle-Blowers

Bar Admissions:

Virginia, 1991
District of Columbia, 1992
Maryland, 1998
Supreme Court of the United States of America
U.S. District Court District of Maryland
U.S. District Court Eastern District of Virginia
U.S. District Court District of Columbia
U.S. District Court Northern District of Illinois
U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
Court of Federal Claims

Education:

Georgetown Univ. Law Center, Washington, DC, 1991 J.D.
Law Review: American Criminal Law Review, 1989-1991, Editor-in-Chief, Vol. 28

Georgetown University, Washington, DC, 1987 A.B.
Major: Economics

Representative Cases:

Weintraub v. Mental Health Authority of St. Mary’s, Inc., 201 WL 4868095 (D. Md. Nov. 23, 2010).

Breeden v. Novartis Pharm. Corp., 684 F. Supp. 2d 58 (D.D.C. 2010).

Kumar v. Hilton Hotels Corp., No. 2:08-cv-02689-BBD-tmp (W.D. Tenn. Jan. 5, 2010).

Stone v. Instrumentation Lab. Co., 591 F.3d 239 (4th Cir. 2009).

Inman v. Klockner Pentaplast Of Am., Inc., 347 F. App'x 955 (4th Cir. 2009).

Amos v. District of Columbia, 589 F. Supp. 2d 48 (D.D.C. 2008).

Kopff v. World Research Group, LLC, 568 F. Supp. 2d 39 (D.D.C. 2008).

Mace v. Domash, 550 F. Supp. 2d 101 (D.D.C. 2008).

U.S. ex rel. Fago v. M & T Mortg. Corp., 518 F. Supp. 2d 108 (D.D.C. 2007).

Francis v. Booz, Allen & Hamilton, Inc., 452 F.3d 299 (4th Cir. 2006).

Shaffer v. ACS Gov’t Servs, Inc., 454 F. Supp. 2d 330 (D. Md. 2006).

Booker v. Robert Half Int’l, Inc., 413 F.3d 77 (D.C. Cir. 2005).

Goldstein v. Moatz, 364 F.3d 205 (4th Cir. 2004).

Cavalier Tel., LLC v. Verizon Va. Inc., 208 F. Supp. 2d 608 (E.D. Va. 2002).

Smith Barney Inc. v. Vogele, 967 F. Supp. 165 (E.D. Va. 1997).

U.S. ex rel. Windsor v. DynCorp, Inc., 895 F. Supp. 844 (E.D. Va. 1995).

Publications

Co-Author: "Drafting and Negotiating Executive Compensation Agreements. " BNA Pension and Benefits Daily (September 2011)

Co-Author: "Litigating Claims Under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act," Employee Advocate (Fall 2010).

Author: “Combating Claims of Computer Fraud and Abuse,” 7 Workplace L. Rep. (BNA) No. 1557 (November 20, 2009).

Presentations

Speaker: “The Defense Playbook 2011,” NELA 2011 Annual Convention, New Orleans, LA, June 29 – July 2, 2011.

Speaker: “Best Practices: Attorney’s Fees Petitions,” NELA 2010 Annual Convention, Washington, D.C., June 23-26, 2010

Past Employment Positions:

United States District Court for the District of Columbia, Hon. Oliver Gasch, Clerk, 1991-92

Towey & Associates, Associate, 1992 - 1996

Kutak Rock, LLP, Associate, 1996 - 2000

Kelley Drye & Warren, LLP, Associate, 2000 - 2002