R. Scott Oswald

Robert Scott Oswald (born December 21, 1967) is an American whistleblower lawyer and managing principal of The Employment Law Group in Washington, D.C.

With colleague Adam Carter, Oswald represented plaintiff Weihua Huang in the first successful jury verdict under stronger anti-retaliation provisions added to the False Claims Act by the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009, winning a damages award of almost $820,000.

Oswald represented whistleblower Jon Oberg in a qui tam lawsuit against multiple student-aid lenders that Oberg alleged were collecting U.S. government subsidies to which they were not entitled. In a 2010 settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, four of these lenders agreed to repay nearly $58 million to taxpayers. Oberg, who had uncovered the scheme while working at the U.S. Department of Education, received a reward of $16.65 million.

With colleague Nicholas Woodfield, Oswald represented plaintiff Richard Kramer in the first Dodd Frank Act retaliation case to reach discovery in federal court. Oswald successfully argued that Kramer met the law's definition of a "whistleblower" despite not having made a report the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission — an issue that would ultimately reach the U.S. Supreme Court in Digital Realty Trust, Inc. v. Somers, a case with which Oswald was not involved.

Oswald is a fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers. In 2017, Washingtonian named him as a "Best Lawyer" for employment plaintiffs in Washington, D.C. Since 2015, he has been ranked as one of the Top 100 lawyers in Washington, D.C., by Super Lawyers.