A seasoned litigator, Jody is passionate about advocating for healthcare clients who face enforcement and compliance issues – both in and out of the courtroom.
Jody has assisted clients across a wide range of industries at investigations, negotiations, mediations, pretrial matters, grand jury proceedings, civil lawsuits, criminal indictments, jury trials, sentencings and appeals. She has tried dozens of jury and bench trials in the federal and state courts, argued before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court. Her experience of more than 20 years includes representing clients in all phases of litigation. She focuses primarily on healthcare issues such as:
- Fraud and abuse
- False Claims Act
- Enforcement
- Kickbacks
- Telemedicine
- Opioid litigation
- Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA)
- Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
- Billing and benefits
Clients appreciate Jody’s deep background on all sides of government compliance and criminal and civil litigation. Although most of her career has been spent in private practice, she has also served as a federal prosecutor for the Northern District of Texas and was appointed by the Texas Attorney General to spearhead high-profile charitable trust and healthcare litigation matters for the State of Texas. She has established excellent working relationships with many civil Assistant U.S. Attorneys in the Northern and Eastern Districts of Texas who handle qui tam matters, as well as DOJ lawyers around the country. Jody values applying her broad experience and passionate advocacy to clients both in and out of the courtroom, knowing that proactive and cost-effective compliance measures are often the best defense.
Jody serves as the Office Managing Partner for Husch Blackwell's Austin office and leads the firm's White Collar, Internal Investigations & Compliance practice group. She also spearheads the firm’s False Claims Act working group.