Stephen M. Kohn

Stephen M. Kohn, with 38 years of experience, was peer-reviewed rated by the National Law Journal as one of the 50 top Plaintiff’s Lawyers in the United States, the only whistleblower rights lawyer to achieve this distinction. In 2025, Forbes named Kohn as one of America’s Top Lawyers, and in 2024, Forbes named Kohn as one of America’s Top 200 Lawyers.

A founding partner of Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto, LLP, Kohn specializes in whistleblower advocacy. He won the first $100 million whistleblower award for UBS Swiss banker Bradley Birkenfeld — $104 million, among the largest-ever individual tax whistleblower reward payments — and set numerous precedents expanding the scope of whistleblower protections.

He won landmark cases under the False Claims Act, Dodd-Frank Act, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act , Commodity Exchange Act, and also under anti-money laundering and various tax laws – making him one of the few whistleblower attorneys in the world with such broad expertise.

In 2026, Kohn prevailed in two CFTC whistleblower cases that set international precedent of the applicability of the Commodity Exchange Act to be used broadly to combat corruption occurring outside of the United States. This was a six-year process that led to his client being awarded over $23M. In addition, he represented clients in two of the SEC’s “Top Ten” cases, and his clients obtained awards topping $100 million in another three cases.

Outside of financial crimes, Kohn’s prevailed in years long litigation resulting in the FBI crime lab being reformed and accredited, and forcing the recall or replacement of an estimated 200,000 defective bullet proof vests.

He currently represents the Danske Bank whistleblower, Howard Wilkinson, who reported (and stopped) the largest known money-laundering scandal ($230 billion).

Kohn was influential in writing and successfully advocating for the passage of the Anti-Money Laundering Whistleblower Improvement Act of 2022.

In 1988, he helped found the National Whistleblower Center, where he currently serves, pro bono, as Chairman of the Board. He is the author of the first legal treatise on whistleblowing and is the world’s most published author on whistleblower protection. His eighth book on whistleblowing is “Rules for Whistleblowers: A Handbook for Doing What’s Right” (Lyons Press, 2023).

Kohn has spearheaded several of the largest whistleblower cases in the U.S. and internationally. He is known for his successful strategies, leveraging whistleblower protection and reward laws.

In honoring Kohn as one of the Top 200 Attorneys in the United States, Forbes Magazine noted that he “helped change the legal landscape” by protecting whistleblowers and “drafted key whistleblower legislation and regulation, including those incorporated into the Sarbanes-Oxley and Dodd-Frank acts.”

In addition to being added to the inaugural list of Top 50 White Collar Crime Trailblazers, Kohn has been a major contributor to whistleblower law, including the following:

• The chief attorney in the Dodd-Frank Act whistleblower case found restrictive nondisclosure agreements to be illegal under U.S. securities laws.
• Over $125 million in awards to his SEC whistleblower clients under Dodd-Frank.
• Three whistleblower awards of over $100 million based on IRS and DOJ enforcement actions.
• Represented a whistleblower who successfully exposed and stopped the largest money laundering scheme in history (over $200 billion laundered from Russia to Western banks).
• Successfully represented key Swiss banking whistleblowers who triggered the historic prosecutions of Swiss banks (resulting in over $15 billion in sanctions, fines, and settlements).
• Represented False Claims Act whistleblower who exposed illegal sales of defective body armor to U.S. military and local police departments. All defective vests were pulled from the market; Companies involved were sanctioned over $100 million; the whistleblower was awarded over $6.5 million.
• Argued case establishing nationwide precedent under the First Amendment recognizing the right of federal employees to publicly blow the whistle on their employing agencies.