Jacob T. Elberg

Jacob Elberg

Associate Professor of Law and Faculty Director of The Center for Health &Pharmaceutical Law


Professor Elberg is the Faculty Director of the Center for Health & Pharmaceutical Law at Seton Hall Law School, where he teaches in the areas of Health Law, Health Care Fraud and Abuse, Evidence, and Data Analytics. His areas of interest include corporate crime and compliance, the role of various actors in the enforcement of health care fraud laws and regulations, and criminal justice policy. 

Professor Elberg was selected as Seton Hall Law School Faculty Teacher of the Year in 2021 and voted Professor of the Year by the Law School student body in 2023 (Paula Franzese Excellence in Teaching Award).

Prior to joining Seton Hall Law School, Professor Elberg served for 11 years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey. As Chief of the Office’s Health Care & Government Fraud Unit for five years, Professor Elberg led one of the largest and most impactful health care units in the country, supervising a team of 15 AUSAs and directing all of the Office’s criminal and civil investigations and prosecutions of health care fraud offenses, including investigations and prosecutions of fraud against the government and private health insurance plans, illegal kickback schemes, violations of the Federal Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act, and the improper diversion of prescription drugs including opioids, as well as all health care-related actions brought by the Office under the False Claims Act. In addition, Professor Elberg supervised and directed investigations regarding Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations, as well as fraud against certain other government agencies and programs. Professor Elberg launched the District of New Jersey’s Data Mining Working Group and spearheaded the Office’s efforts to utilize data analytics to identify, investigate, and prosecute health care fraud offenses.

In 2013, Professor Elberg was awarded the Department of Justice’s Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys Director’s Award for Superior Performance as an AUSA for his investigation and prosecution of Maxim Healthcare Services, et al., which resulted in a recovery of $150 Million (the largest ever in a home healthcare case), as well as the felony convictions of nine individuals in six states, including three senior executives of one of the nation’s largest home healthcare companies. In 2016, Professor Elberg led the prosecution of Olympus Corp., resulting in a $646 million global criminal and civil resolution for violations of the Anti-Kickback Statute and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act – the largest total amount paid in U.S. history for violations involving the Anti-Kickback Statute and the largest resolution of any kind involving a medical device company. In 2018, Professor Elberg was awarded the Health & Human Services Office of Inspector General Award for Fighting Fraud, Waste, and Abuse for leading the investigation and prosecution of Biodiagnostic Laboratory Services, which resulted in 53 convictions, including 38 physicians – the largest number of medical professionals ever prosecuted in a bribery case.

Professor Elberg has been a leading speaker throughout the country on issues relating to health care fraud and abuse. He has been called upon to teach Department of Justice criminal and civil health care prosecutors from across the country on several occasions, including at the conference launching Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates’s Individual Accountability Initiative. Professor Elberg’s article, A Path to Data-Driven Health Care Enforcement, was competitively selected for presentation at the 2019 Health Law Scholars Workshop co-sponsored by Saint Louis University Center for Health Law Studies and the American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics.

Professor Elberg received his B.A., cum laude and with honors, from Dartmouth College and his J.D., magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School. After graduating law school, Professor Elberg clerked for the Honorable Nancy Gertner, United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, and then practiced law as an associate at the firm of Dwyer & Collora LLP (now Hogan Lovells) in Boston, where his areas of practice included white collar criminal defense, internal corporate investigations, and general commercial litigation. He is a member of the Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York Bars.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

LAW REVIEW ARTICLES

Ain't No Sunshine: Bringing Physician Conflicts Out of the Dark, University of Richmond Law Review (forthcoming)

Neither Carrots nor Sticks: DOJ’s Unfulfilled Commitment to Corporate Health Care Compliance, 2022 Wisc. L. Rev. 691 (2022)

Health Care Fraud Means Never Having to Say You’re Sorry, 96 Wash. L. Rev. 371 (2021)

A Path to Data-Driven Health Care Enforcement, 2020 Utah L. Rev. 1169 (2020)

BOOK CHAPTERS

The False Claims Act and Enforcement Against Pharmaceutical Manufacturers, in Pharmaceutical Compliance and Enforcement Answer Book, Practicing Law Institute (Dorfman, ed.) (2020)

Enforcement Authorities, in Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Compliance Manual, (Bochenek, Coleman, Matey, eds.) (2019) (with Shapiro)

OTHER JOURNAL ARTICLES

Fraud, Access, and the Future of Telemedicine, J Am Board of Fam Med. (2023) (with Adashi)

Accountability of Health Care Executives for Illegal Activities of Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Companies, JAMA Internal Medicine (2022) (Invited Commentary)

Overlapping Surgery—In DeBakey’s Shadow, JAMA Surgery (2022) (with Adashi & Brown)

Transparency and the Doctor-Patient Relationship – Rethinking Conflict-of-Interest Disclosures, New England Journal of Medicine (2022) (with Adashi & Cohen)

Individual Accountability for Corporate Wrongdoing: The Prosecution of OtisMed Corp. CEO Charlie Chi, Department of Justice Journal of Federal Law and Practice (2016) (with Goldstein)

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Supreme Court gives government broad authority to dismiss whistleblower lawsuits, SCOTUSblog (June 16, 2023)

Supreme Court maintains focus on defendant's subjective belief in False Claims Act cases, SCOTUSblog (June 1, 2023)

The court appears likely to preserve theory of liability in False Claims Act cases, SCOTUSblog (April 20, 2023)

Justices will consider false claims in two pharmacy cases, SCOTUSblog (April 14, 2023)

Justices probe government’s authority to dismiss False Claims Act lawsuits, SCOTUSblog (Dec. 6, 2022)

Whistleblower and DOJ spar over balance of power in False Claims Act cases, SCOTUSblog (Dec. 3, 2022)

Compliance Mandates in Civil Settlement Agreements—A New Trend?, NYU Law School Compliance & Enforcement Blog (2022)

Neither Carrots nor Sticks: DOJ’s Unfulfilled Commitment to Corporate Health Care Compliance, NYU Law School Compliance & Enforcement Blog (2021)

Health Care Fraud Means Never Having to Say You’re Sorry, NYU Law School Compliance & Enforcement Blog (2021)

A Path to Data-Driven Health Care Enforcement, NYU Law School Compliance & Enforcement Blog (2020)

Does DOJ Actually Reward Cooperation by Health Care Organizations?  New Data Raises Questions, Harvard Law School Petrie-Flom Center Bill of Health Blog (2019)

DOJ’s New Guidance on Civil Cooperation Credit Provides Some Answers, but the Bigger Question Remains, Harvard Law School Petrie-Flom Center Bill of Health Blog (2019)

FCA Settlement Data Shows Need for Comprehensive Reform, Law360 (2019)