T: +1 (202) 847 4015
E: tmatthewsjohnson@wilkinsonwalsh.com
W: www.wilkinsonwalsh.com
Tamarra Matthews Johnson has made her career as a litigator at the trial and appellate levels, in complex civil and criminal cases. In the past several months, Tamarra has served as trial counsel in two cases for Bayer Corporation. Tamarra represents corporate clients involved in a range of industries, from pharma to energy, and manufacturing to sports. Before joining Wilkinson Walsh, Tamarra served for more than a decade as an Assistant United States Attorney, litigating scores of white-collar criminal matters. Tamarra held the position of Deputy Chief in the Criminal Division with primary responsibility for supervising major fraud and corruption matters, and before that served as the National Security/Anti-Terrorism Advisory Council Coordinator for the District. During her tenure as a federal prosecutor, Tamarra received a Justice Department Director’s Award for Superior Performance, and the Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General’s Honor Award for Fighting Fraud, Waste, and Abuse. Tamarra tried multiple public corruption and fraud cases to juries. She served as lead prosecutor and trial counsel in complex fraud cases that resulted in large monetary recoveries and the longest prison sentences handed down for white collar crime in the District’s history.
Tamarra graduated from Duke University and Yale Law School. She began her legal career by clerking for the Honorable Judith W. Rogers, United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and the Honorable Sandra Day O’Connor, Supreme Court of the United States.
Tamarra’s notable matters include:
• Served as co-lead trial counsel in Cooney v. Janssen Pharmaceuticals et al., a bellwether case before the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas in the national products liability litigation challenging the warnings that accompany Bayer Corporation’s market-leading blood thinner, Xarelto. Tamarra conducted voir dire; cross examined plaintiff’s expert, a former FDA Commissioner; presented Bayer’s case-specific pulmonologist; and delivered opening and closing arguments with lead trial counsel. The jury returned a complete defense verdict after less than two hours of deliberation.
• Served as trial counsel in Hardeman v. Monsanto, the first federal-court trial over allegations that Roundup causes Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, where Tamarra conducted the cross-examination of the plaintiff’s expert in epidemiology and presented Bayer’s epidemiology expert.
• Lead trial counsel in a multi-million-dollar health care fraud prosecution involving multiple law enforcement agencies and a long-standing conspiracy that jeopardized the solvency of the largest federally-funded indigent care clinic in the state. The trial and related prosecutions resulted in an 18-year sentence for the leader of the scheme and a 17-year sentence for his lieutenant.
Last Updated September 2019