A Whistleblower Law Firm Dedicated to Fighting Fraud

Recognized as a Super Lawyer and a Top 50 Lawyer in America for his work on whistleblower cases, Attorney Michael A. Hirst is the founder of Hirst Law Group, P.C., in Davis, California. Mr. Hirst was born and raised in Greenwich Village in New York City. He was a Regents Scholar at Hamilton College. While attending law school, he was ranked number one in his first-year law school class. Later, he was designated as a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar at Columbia University School of Law.

From there, he went on to have a distinguished 15-year career as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of California. While working for the government, Mr. Hirst served as the Affirmative Civil Enforcement Coordinator, the Health Care Fraud Coordinator, and eventually the Co-Chief of the Civil Division and Chief of Affirmative Civil Litigation, in which he supervised all civil investigations and cases brought by the office within the 34 counties in the district, including all fraud and False Claims Act prosecutions.

Described by the San Jose Mercury News as one of the “leading prosecutors in California,” Mr. Hirst has received numerous awards and recognitions. Nominated for the National Assistant United States Attorney of the Year in 2004, Mr. Hirst has received multiple sustained superior performance awards and a Director’s Award from the Department of Justice, presented by Attorney General Janet Reno. He has received awards from other federal agencies, including Drug Enforcement Administration, Department of Agriculture, and the Civil Rights Division. Mr. Hirst received the highest award given by the Department of Health and Human Services and various awards and recognitions from the Forest Service, including from Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth, who recognized Mr. Hirst’s “tireless efforts in preparation and brilliant performance at trial.”

In 2005, Mr. Hirst formed Hirst & Chanler LLP, and in 2009, he founded Hirst Law Group, P.C. Prior to starting his own firm, Mr. Hirst worked at the law firm of McCutchen, Doyle, Brown and Enersen in San Francisco.

Mr. Hirst obtained the largest recovery in Forest Service history representing the United States in a case to recover damages from a fire. His subsequent record-setting $62.55 million healthcare fraud prosecution of Redding Medical Center and Tenet Healthcare, Inc. was the largest recovery in a medical necessity fraud case, and the largest recovery against a single hospital, in United States history. Following that case, Attorney General John Ashcroft wrote that Mr. Hirst was an “exceptional litigator who has performed a significant public service.” Attorney General Ashcroft stated: “The successful outcome in this case significantly advanced the Department’s efforts to combat fraudulent health care practices.” Featured in a book about the case, Coronary (Simon and Schuster, 2007) by New York Times journalist and author Stephen Klaidman, Mr. Hirst was described as a “quiet but tough negotiator.” Mr. Hirst has also been featured in two books by a successful whistleblower, entitled Whistleblower and Retaliation (Bay Tree Publishing 2010, 2013), in which author Amy Block Joy described Mr. Hirst as “gifted,” and stated that “[Mr. Hirst] had done brilliant work for me, for which I will always be grateful.”

Mr. Hirst’s cases have been reported on television, radio and newspapers throughout the country and abroad, including on 60 Minutes, 20-20, CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox, NPR, in front page stories in the New York Times and the Financial Times of London, in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Associated Press, Reuters, the National Journal, the Sacramento Bee, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the San Francisco Chronicle, and numerous other publications.

Mr. Hirst lives in Davis, California. He has taught federal court litigation and trial technique classes at UC Davis Law School for the International Law program.

Marisela Bernal is the most recent addition to Hirst Law Group, P.C. and a California native. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 2011 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in both Psychology and Legal Studies and graduated from the University of California, Davis in 2019 with a Juris Doctorate. She began her legal career in 2012 working with a firm focusing on transactions and litigation with trusts, estates, adoptions, and guardianships. She is experienced in both appeals and litigation brought under seal. She has been at Hirst Law Group since 2018 and has been a vital member of the team.

As a law student, Ms. Bernal received a Witkin Award for academic excellence. She was a quarterfinalist at the 2018 John J. Gibbons Criminal Procedure Moot Court Competition out of 46 teams and also earned participation in the 2019 Saul Lefkowitz Moot Court Competition held at the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco. Ms. Bernal served as the Neumiller Co-Chair of the 2018–2019 Moot Court Honors Board, a Senior Articles Editor for the U.C. Davis Business Law Journal, and a Research Editor for the U.C. Davis Journal of International Law & Policy. She was a judicial extern at the federal District Court for the Northern District of California. During law school, Ms. Bernal began work as a law clerk for Hirst Law Group and was eager to return as a full-time attorney.

Mr. Hurst is a CPA (currently holding a retired California license). He has extensive experience in investigating Medicare and Medicaid fraud, having spent 26 years with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General. He was also the Health Care Fraud Auditor with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of California, from July 2001 to November 2005. Mr. Hurst left the government in November 2005 to join Hirst Law Group.

Mr. Hurst’s auditing work in federal and state health care programs includes nursing homes, hospitals, physicians, medical supply companies, home health care agencies, pharmaceutical companies, rural health clinics, and durable medical equipment companies, to name a few. He has extensive experience working with government agents from the FBI, HHS-OIG, DCIS, etc., who may be involved in your case once it is filed.

During the school year and with our summer clerkship program, out of many competitive applicants, Hirst Law Group has hired law clerks from U.C. Davis School of Law to assist our attorneys. We thank our numerous law clerks who have contributed to our success.