Whistleblower Atty Shares Advice From His Union Counsel Roots

Reuben A. Guttman

Boutique law firm Guttman Buschner & Brooks PLLC guided an anesthesiologist in a whistleblower suit against Massachusetts General Hospital, the teaching hospital for Harvard Medical School, that ended with Mass General settling in 2022 and agreeing to pay $14.6 million to the government.

The firm represented Dr. Lisa Wollman in that case, which led to the hospital agreeing to change its informed consent policy to improve communication letting patients know when their surgeon has booked an overlapping surgery, Guttman Buschner said in a statement at the time.

In an interview with Outlaw360, Reuben A. Guttman, a senior founding partner at the firm, reflected on the impact of the Mass General litigation and other cases his firm has worked on. He also spoke generally about the Law360 Union’s unfair labor practice strike and what workers could expect when going on strike.

Guttman said the False Claims Act dispute against Mass General centered on allegations that the hospital double-booked surgeries and did not obtain adequate consent from patients for overlapping surgeries.

"When we bring cases under the False Claims Act, we're effectively representing the largest consumer in the world, which is the United States government,” he said. “We're using that consumer to drive that standard of care.”

The case has made an impact in changing “the standard of care in teaching hospitals throughout the country,” according to Guttman.

"In discovery we're doing in other cases, we're seeing our stories about the MGH case pop up," he said. "We're seeing compliance officers citing our MGH case. It's exciting that one woman, Lisa Wollman, was able to come to us and literally change the practice of surgery throughout the entire country.”

Earlier in his career, Guttman represented workers of the Manhattan Project in multiple lawsuits and successfully recovered more than $30 million under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Those cases led to changes in procurement practices and disease compensation legislation for workers in the nuclear weapons program. 

Guttman began his legal career as counsel for the Service Employees International Union, AFL-CIO, in Washington, D.C.

He said he was in private practice after serving at the Service Employees union when he learned about a union representing workers in the nuclear weapons program. Guttman was retained by that union as he pushed for incumbent workers to be given preference to help with site cleanups, he recalled.

“It was a union that was progressive and wanted to protect workers on the job from getting killed,” Guttman said about the nuclear weapons workers union.

Through his previous experience representing labor unions, Guttman found whistleblower clients who knew of concerning matters, such as a nursing home drugging its patients amid understaffing, he noted.

"The government cracked down on that," he said. "We think we saved some lives."

“It wasn't affecting the workers directly. It was affecting the patients,” Guttman continued. “Sometimes you’re advocating for people who aren’t directly injured, but they’re vindicating the rights of those who are injured.”

He added that the judicial system doesn't exist in a vacuum. 

"It's not just a win or lose in the court system,” Guttman said. “It's the fact that you’re creating a record, and transparency drives the other branches of government, legislation, oversight, all of that kind of stuff.”

Advice to Striking Law360 Union Members

When it comes to labor law, Guttman said, one limitation for unions is that they can’t ask a court to order an employer to bargain in good faith.

"If you go back to the New Deal administration in the 1930s, when the National Labor Relations Act was passed, you might say to yourself that it was passed out of an act of benevolence for working people," he said. "But it was justified under the Commerce Clause. The idea was that it was going to temper labor strikes so that we wouldn't have these strikes that interfere with commerce.”

Guttman explained that workers’ disputes with their employers have to go through the National Labor Relations Board. 

“There’s no punitive damages. The remedies are slow and minimal,” he said. 

Another weakness in labor law, Guttman pointed out, is that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission usually requires discrimination claims under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act to be filed within six months. That sharply contrasts with a typical three-year deadline to file a claim for slip-and-fall injuries, he said. 

Psychology also impacts how unions organize during a strike, according to Guttman.

“Once a strike happens, there’s a ton of solidarity,” he said. “Maybe it’ll resolve in a day or two, but if it is going into two to three weeks, that’s when people can get demoralized. You have to keep it up.”

Uncertainty is the union’s friend because corporate leaders like to have certainty, Guttman said. He also said solidarity should be built around the fact that Law360 is a good publication because its union workers make it a good publication. 

Guttman added that one challenge can be sustaining solidarity among striking union members.

“Honestly, your biggest asset is your talent,” he said. 

He encouraged the Law360 Union to start its own publication (hello, Outlaw360!) and find a sponsor for it if the strike necessitates that route. 

“At the end of the day, my experience with strikes — and I’ve been in a lot of them — you think it’ll never end, and then all of a sudden, without warning, there will be a resolution,” he said. 

He also said that even if the Law360 leaders are putting up a stone face, “they’re panicking inside.”

“They don’t know how to handle this, and they don’t know the consequences,” he said.

Guttman said the law firm representing the Law360 Union, Cohen Weiss and Simon LLP, is one of the top labor firms in the U.S. He noted that he’s known the union’s lead lawyer from Cohen Weiss, partner Hanan B. Kolko, for years.

“He’s one of the best labor lawyers in the United States, and Jackson Lewis knows that,” he said, referencing Jackson Lewis PC, the firm representing Law360 management.   

—Editing by Covey Son and Kelly Duncan.