Former UnitedHealth executive joins boutique health care law firm

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Former chief compliance and ethics officer for UnitedHealth Group Anthony Mahajan has joined boutique health care law firm Frier Levitt LLC to chair its white collar defense and government investigations practice.

Mahajan also joins the Pine Brook-based firm as a partner in its litigation and regulatory departments, drawing on nine years as an assistant U.S. attorney with the Department of Justice in New Jersey.

At UnitedHealth, Mahajan was responsible for the enterprise-wide compliance program across domestic and international operations. He managed teams of legal and compliance professionals to support government and private health plans, PBM, central-fill and specialty pharmacy, primary care, alternate-site and behavioral health providers, and ancillary services such as transportation, call centers, and in-home health care.

As an AUSA, he led investigations and prosecutions of health care-related crimes, including those related to internet pharmacy, controlled substances, anti-kickback, and billing schemes. He also prosecuted organized crime earlier in his career, including a multi-decade racketeering conspiracy by the Genovese organized crime family of La Cosa Nostra and International Longshoremen’s Association union officials to extort dockworkers at the Port of New York/New Jersey.

“[Mahajan’s] unique blend of litigation, compliance, and corporate governance experience across private practice, public service, and in-house sectors will benefit our clients to proactively identify and manage risk, remediate significant instances of noncompliance, and respond to regulatory scrutiny,” said Frier Levitt co-founding partner Daniel Frier in a statement on his hiring.

Mahajan also previously served as chief counsel and vice president of compliance, regulatory, and ethics at McKesson Corp., where he oversaw McKesson’s adherence to a 2017 settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice relating to controlled substances, and providing legal and compliance advice to business unit stakeholders.

“With more than two decades of crisis-management and extensive federal trial experience, Anthony not only offers our clients strategic perspective and pragmatic solutions, he spearheads the remarkable growth Frier Levitt has experienced in this area, a trend that is expected to ramp up as white collar enforcement is prioritized by the Biden administration,” said Frier Levitt co-founding partner Jonathan Levitt in a prepared statement.