The Death of Bowman Claims and Virginia’s New Whistleblower Protection Law (On Demand Seminar)

A pre-recorded streaming AUDIO replay of the February 2022 webcast, The Death of Bowman Claims and Virginia’s New Whistleblower Protection Law.

For three and a half decades (from 1986 until 2020) Virginia Courts struggled with “Bowman torts,” which are otherwise known as “wrongful termination in violation of public policy.” The law of Bowman torts eventually became unworkable and muddled; fortunately it has now been replaced by Virginia Code § 40.1-27.3.

In this 1-hour seminar, Zach Kitts breaks down the July 1, 2020, amendment to the Virginia Code, § 40.1-27.3, titled “Retaliatory action against employee prohibited,” which significantly enhanced whistleblower protections and causes of action in Virginia.

Topics to be covered include:

• A review of the 35-year run of “Bowman cases” or wrongful termination in violation of public policy; the reasons those torts were created in the first place; and what happened to that once-popular tort claim.
• A look at the newish “Bowman Statute”—i.e., Virginia Code § 40.1-27.3, to include an examination of the expanded protections against retaliation from employers for whistleblowers and the statutorily created remedies and how those claims replace common law Bowman torts.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Zachary A. Kitts, K&G Law Group / Fairfax

Zachary Kitts is a partner at K&G Law Group, PLLC, where he concentrates his practice in the areas of qui tam litigation under the federal False Claims Act and Virginia Fraud Against Taxpayers Act, employment law, business torts, and other complex civil litigation matters.

In 2020 Mr. Kitts was named Qui Tam Lawyer of the Year by the publication Best Lawyers in America.  His cases have been regularly featured in the annual Million Dollar Settlements issue of Virginia Lawyers Weekly, including a $20.7 million settlement with the Virginia Neurological Birth Injury Fund that was the largest settlement in Virginia in 2018. His qui tam practice is national in scope, and he appears regularly in state and federal courts across the country. In total, his qui tam cases have returned more than $117 million to state and federal treasuries and he has been involved in a number of high-profile, precedent-setting cases.

Mr. Kitts is a member of the Virginia State Bar’s standing committee on professionalism and is a member of the Virginia Bar’s Mandatory Professionalism Course faculty; from 2013 to 2019 he served on the Virginia Bar’s Mandatory Continuing Legal Education Board. He has been included in the Virginia and D.C. editions of Super Lawyers magazine every year since 2011 and has been included in Best Lawyers in America every year since 2015. He received his B.A. from George Mason University in 1998 and his J.D. from American University’s Washington College of Law in 2001.