Hervé Gouraige is a Member of the Sills Cummis & Gross Litigation Department. Mr. Gouraige is a civil and criminal litigator/trial lawyer who practices in the areas of white collar and regulatory defense, securities litigation, federal and state RICO actions, health care fraud litigation (False Claims Act and kickback cases), internal corporate investigations, general commercial litigation, including class actions, and antitrust litigation. He has represented corporate and individual clients in all types of civil and criminal matters (from foreclosure to sexual assault) in federal and state courts throughout the country. In his most recent public criminal representation, Mr. Gouraige was counsel to a former president of the United Nations General Assembly.
Mr. Gouraige uses his skills, experience, and legal knowledge to develop innovative strategies to solve client problems without necessarily going to trial.
With more than thirty (30) criminal and civil trials, jury and non-jury, Mr. Gouraige is also an experienced trial lawyer whose courtroom skills have been highly praised. After obtaining an acquittal for his client in a case in Salem, VA, the trial judge complimented his trial skills: “I might say to your counsel sitting next to you that I have been around a long time, some forty-six years at the bar, and I haven’t heard a finer argument than he made.”
Mr. Gouraige served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York under U.S. Attorney Rudolph Giuliani (1984-91). He handled criminal cases involving business fraud, tax fraud, health care fraud, and national security. In 1985, Mr. Gouraige was the first Assistant designated to handle health care fraud cases in the Southern District of New York. During his term as Assistant U.S. Attorney, Mr. Gouraige was awarded the Superior Achievement Award by the Department of Health and Human Services for significant contribution in fighting fraud in the Medicare and Medicaid programs, and the Department of Justice Director’s Award for Superior Performance for his successful handling of a four-month bank fraud trial.
Mr. Gouraige is an active member of the bar and the community. He is a former chairperson (and current emeritus member) of the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race New York City Dinner Committee. He has served as president of the Harvard Law School Association of New Jersey. He is a member of the Litigation Counsel of America, an invitation-only trial lawyer honorary society, and a Trustee Emeritus (and former President) of the Board of Trustees of the Newark School of the Arts. He is a former member of the New Jersey and New York Rhodes Scholarship Selection Committees. Mr. Gouraige has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Urban League of Hudson County (New Jersey) and The Legal Aid Society in New York (2002-08).
Mr. Gouraige has taught trial advocacy for the National Institute of Trial Advocacy at Hofstra University Law School, where he served as a Team Leader. He has also taught trial advocacy at Widener University School of Law and at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.
Mr. Gouraige lectures for the ABA, ALI-ABA, and PLI on civil and criminal matters. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute, and he has written a number of articles for professional journals, including an article on insider trading published in the Rutgers University Law Review.