John R Phillips (attorney)

Early life and education

Phillips was born and grew up in Leechburg, Pennsylvania, a small steel mill town in western Pennsylvania. His grandparents emigrated from Italy in the early 1900s and Americanized their family name by changing it from “Filippi” to “Phillips.”

Phillips received a B.A. degree from the University of Notre Dame in 1966 and a J.D. degree in 1969 from the University of California at Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall), where he was a member of the editorial board of the California Law Review.

Professional career

Phillips joined the Los Angeles, California, law firm of O’Melveny & Myers as an associate in 1969. After two years, he left to start one of the first Ford Foundation-funded public interest law firms, the Center for Law in the Public Interest (CLIPI), in Los Angeles with three former colleagues.

Center for Law in the Public Interest

Phillips was co-director of CLIPI for 17 years. During that time, the firm was a major force litigating landmark environmental, civil rights, consumer protection and corporate fraud and accountability cases. Some of its court cases:

Whistleblower work

Phillips played a significant role in the creation of the US government’s very successful whistleblower reward program designed to encourage private citizens to expose and stop defense contractor fraud, Medicare fraud and other types of fraud against the government.  He worked closely with Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and then-Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA) to secure congressional passage of the amended False Claims Act with “qui tam” (whistleblower) provisions which were signed into law by President Reagan in October 1986. The law has become the government’s primary tool in holding accountable corporations that have defrauded the U.S. government. To date, over $55 billion have been recovered by the U.S. Treasury from companies that have defrauded the government.  The benefit-to-cost ratio of the False Claims Act has been estimated at more than $20 for every $1 governments spend on enforcement.

Phillips started a private law practice, Phillips & Cohen LLP, in Los Angeles and later moved it to Washington, DC, and opened an office in San Francisco. It became the most successful law firm representing whistleblowers in False Claims Act cases.  Some of the notable “qui tam” whistleblower lawsuits brought by his firm included record-setting cases against for-profit hospital chain HCA, General Electric, Northrop Grumman, Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline. Phillips retired from the law firm when he became ambassador to Italy. Cases initiated by Phillips’ firm have resulted in recoveries to the government of approximately $12 billion.

Shortly after passage of the amended False Claims Act, Phillips founded in 1986 Taxpayers Against Fraud, a non-profit group that is dedicated to educating the public about government whistleblower programs and advancing public and government support for whistleblower cases.

Public appointments

John Phillips was selected by President Bill Clinton to be a member of the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships. He served from 1997 to 2001. In 2009, President Obama appointed Phillips to be the chairman of the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships, where he served for four years.  He was an appointed member (1988) to serve on the 9th Circuit Judicial Conference.

President Obama appointed him as US Ambassador to Italy and San Marino in 2013. 

As the American Ambassador to Italy, John Phillips made numerous speeches and public statements about important issues of the day, well as cultural and historical matters that relate to the bond between the United States and Italy. Some of those statements include:

The Ambassador and his wife, Linda Douglass, prepared a video for the Italian people before their arrival in Italy on September 13, 2013. (link)

Phillips' first speech as ambassador was at the MAXXI museum in Rome, at the opening of an exhibit sponsored by the Robert Kennedy Foundation on freedom fighters of the civil rights movement in the United States, focusing on the role played by Martin Luther King, John kennedy and Robert Kennedy. (link)

Ambassador Phillips traveled to the small villages of Poffabro and Frisanco in the Friuli region of Italy. From these two small villages Phillips’ grandparents and great-grandparents, Filippi and Colussy, emigrated to America in 1904 to seek a better life. He spoke about their struggle to survive life in Italy in their life in America. (link)

Ambassador Phillips spoke at the Centro Studio Americano about the importance that all European and North American countries continue to support the sanctions imposed against Russia for its invasion of Crimea in the Ukraine. (link)

At a conference he organized in Rome at Villa Taverna, the ambassador’s residence, he spoke about his role in resurrecting the anti-corruption law the False Claims Act, and why the same mechanisms that proved so successful in America could also be used in Italy to fight fraud against the government. (link)

On several occasions the ambassador spoke about the bravery and sacrifice of American soldiers during World War II, including the landing at Anzio Beach, which began the liberation of Italy from the Nazi occupation, (link), The 70th anniversary of the liberation of Rome by American troops (link), the annual Memorial Day speeches at the Florence/American cemetery in 2015, with prime minister Renzi, in honor of more than 4000 American soldiers who there lay in repose, having given the ultimate sacrifice fighting for Italy’s liberation. (link)

In 2016 the ambassador spoke often about the upcoming US elections, at a university on the island of Sardinia (link), to a gathering of 1200 Italians on election eve (link), and at a post-election retrospective at New York University's Florence campus.

Reflecting on the tragedy of the Orlando massacre in 2016, where 52 people were killed in a nightclub, Phillips spoke to a gathering of Italian officials and Embassy personnel to mourn the victims of gun violence. (link)

At the US Embassy he addressed Italian officials on the importance of commercialization of science and research. (link)

At the newly refurbished theater at the ambassadors residence, Villa Taverna, he addressed the audiences of numerous movies and documentaries: "winter on fire: uprising in The Ukraine" (link); A documentary on Steve jobs (link); and Richard Gere introduced his movie on homelessness in America. (link)

The ambassador produced a video introducing the movie "Roman holiday" to 1000 Italians watching it in piazza de Spagna in Rome on the occasion the anniversary of what would have been Gregory Peck's one hundredth birthday. (link)

The public affairs department of the embassy made numerous videos with the participation of the Ambassador including; keeping 30,000 American student safe while studying in Italy (link); California Governor Jerry Brown on the Special Olympics (link); the Komen race for the cure of cancer (link); violence against women (link); the importance of voting (link); encouraging entrepreneurship in Italy (link); program for young classical musicians (link); American wine (link); Milan expo 2015: feeding the planet (link); creation of mural art at Villa Taverna (link); the importance of judicial reform for Italy; repatriation to Italy of stolen art; teaching students how to grow vegetables (link); and honoring the 100th anniversary of the American Chamber of Commerce (link).

Throughout his tenure, Ambassador Phillips recorded numerous holiday greetings including a 2015 speech at the annual Fourth of July party at Villa Taverna (link); 2016 July 4 party at Villa Taverna (link); thanksgiving holiday greeting (link); and Christmas holiday greeting in 2015 (link). At a final town hall meeting with embassy staff in November 2016, Ambassador Phillips summarized the 3 1/2 years of his tenure and answered questions. (link) Before his departure as Ambassador in January 2017, the Embassy staff prepared an arrivederci video (link) and the Ambassador gave his farewell speech right afterwards.

Italy

Phillips invested in a group of houses (a “borgo,” or village) in Tuscany in 2001 that were more than 800 years old and were in a ruined state.  He spent eight years restoring and improving the buildings and grounds, following strict historic preservation rules. The borgo, which has a total of 22 bedrooms (Borgo Finocchieto in Bibbiano, Buonconvento), is designed to host groups, small conferences and educational programs, loosely based on the Aspen Institute model.

Phillips was a member of the Board of Trustees of the American Academy in Rome from 2009 to 2013.  Before he became ambassador to Italy, he made more than 50 trips to Italy in the previous decade.

Awards and recognition

Personal

Phillips is married to Linda Douglass, a veteran journalist and communications strategist. They have a daughter who is an emergency room physician.