This is an as-told-to essay based on a conversation with Poppy Alexander, a San Francisco-based partner at the law firm Constantine Cannon. It has been edited for length and clarity.
I was one of those crazy kids who would've told you that I wanted to be a lawyer at 14. I always wanted to be a public interest lawyer — that was my goal.
I spent most of my time in law school at the human rights clinic. It really opened my eyes to the tools we had to hold corporations accountable and to make sure that people were treated fairly. That's the power of the law, and that's why I do what I do.
The work whistleblower attorneys do revolves around the False Claims Act, which was a law passed by President Lincoln during the Civil War to stop profiteering.
The idea of the act is simple: Anyone who knows of a company that's cheating the government can come forward and be awarded some portion of the recovery. That was fascinating to me, and when an opportunity opened up at my current firm, Constantine Cannon, I took it.
Whistleblowers are flashlights — they tell the government where to look. There's...
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