Email: [email protected]

Charles H. Rabon, Jr. (Chet Rabon), a native of South Carolina, graduated Furman University, in Greenville, South Carolina, with a B.A. degree in Political Science and minor in History. Chet attended Vanderbilt University Law School, where he served on Law Review, was elected Order of the Coif, and graduated with honors in 1989.

Following graduation, Chet clerked for Judge Emmett R. Cox, on the U.S. 11^th Circuit Court of Appeals.   He then worked as a courtroom trial attorney for a large national law firm for several years, mostly representing large businesses.

In 2012, Chet established the Rabon Law Firm, PLLC, which brings and litigates federal and state False Claims Act (FCA) and other whistleblower and fraud cases, and also handles business and commercial litigation, serious personal injury and wrongful death claims, and employment and discrimination cases.  The majority of the firm's practice is in False Claims Act cases and related fraud matters representing whistleblowers coast-to-coast and around the world.  Since the time the Rabon Law Firm has focused on this very “niche” area of the law, the firm has vetted well over 1,000 potential cases, with only the strongest and most promising cases being selected for representation and filing.  Statistics bear out that only a very few lawyers in the United States, like Chet Rabon, have made False Claims Act litigation their specialty.  Of approximately 1.3 million licensed active lawyers in the United States, there are only about 200 who specialize in representing Plaintiff-Relators (i.e., Whistleblowers) in this area.  Consequently, the vast majority of successful FCA cases are handled by this elite group.

During his career, Chet has represented a variety of clients as trial and appellate counsel in many significant legal matters, including, to highlight just a few examples:

• Representing federal whistleblowers in dozens of cases filed throughout the United States. At last count, these include cases filed in 21 (of 94) federal district courts sitting in 13 states and the District of Columbia.  Our firm is rightly proud of our high rate of federal intervention in its FCA cases and, all totaled, our intervened and litigated cases have recovered in excess of $2 billion in monies fraudulently stolen from taxpayers.
• Representing individuals in employment cases, including federal retaliation claims, that have collectively recovered several million dollars in compensation for those clients.
• Representing, as joint lead counsel, a small North Carolina-based business in an Unfair and Deceptive Business Practices Claim, tried before a jury for over four straight months, which resulted $13.25 million judgment in favor of our client.
• Representing a small business based in North Carolina against a large Chinese based company involving the theft of intellectual property. The International Arbitration Panel found the Chinese company guilty of having stolen our client's technology, and awarded our client several million in damages – which was affirmed and entered as a Judgment by the United States District Court.  We then successfully executed on the Judgment by seizing funds from the Chinese company's bank accounts in the United States.
• Representing dozens of clients in numerous catastrophic personal injury claims and wrongful death claims, including cases that resulted in seven-figure and eight-figure verdicts and settlements.
• Chet is currently involved in more than a dozen active FCA cases around the United States, including presently litigating declined cases where the defendants' liability exposure across collective cases exceeds half a billion dollars.

Chet has consistently maintained Martindale Hubbell's highest “AV” rating through his entire career (highest rating for legal ability and ethics, as polled by attorneys and judges), and has several times been named to “Legal Elite”, “Super Lawyers”, and similar legal practice recognition and awards organizations.

In the False Claims Act arena, our firm has a stellar national reputation among the elite qui tam bar, and frequently collaborates with firms all around the United States working on these complex and challenging cases. 

Professional Affiliations and Memberships

• The Anti-Fraud Coalition (formerly Taxpayers Against Fraud – “TAF”)
• American Association for Justice 
• Federal Bar Association (Sustaining Member)
• Mecklenburg County Bar Association (Past Board Member)
• North Carolina Advocates for Justice (Past Board Member)
• North Carolina Bar Association
• Southern Trial Lawyers Association (Board Member)
• Western Trial Lawyers Association
• The Melvin M. Belli Society

Bar Admissions

• U.S. Supreme Court
• All North Carolina state trial and appellate courts
• U.S. Eastern District of North Carolina
• U.S. Middle District of North Carolina
• U.S. Western District of North Carolina
• U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals
• U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals
• Approximately 17 other federal districts by pro hac vice admission

Representative Speaking & Publications

• 2014 ABA National Health Care Fraud Institute, “Ethical Challenges in a Whistleblower Case,” San Francisco
• 2015 ABA False Claims Act Trial Institute, FCA Plaintiff's Trial Team, Direct Examination of Plaintiff, Washington, D.C.
• 2015 Southern Trial Lawyers, “Things You Need to Know About the False Claims Act,” New Orleans
• 2016 Western Trial Lawyers, “Bringing a Successful False Claims Act Case,” Maui
• 2016 Federal Bar Association, Litigation Section Qui Tam Conference, “Fundamentals and Developments,” Washington, D.C.
• 2017 ABA False Claims Act Trial Institute, Plaintiff's Trial Team, Presentation of Plaintiff's Expert Witness, Washington, D.C.
• 2017 AAJ Annual Meeting, “False Claims Act 101: Its Purpose, How It Works in Practice, and Pitfalls to Avoid,” Boston
• 2017 Federal Bar Association Seminar, “Current Trends in False Claims Act/Qui Tam Whistleblower Litigation, FCA/Qui Tam Suits: Plaintiff's Perspective,” Charleston, SC
• 2017 Taxpayers Against Fraud, Annual Seminar, “SBA Set Aside Fraud and the FCA,” Washington, D.C.
• 2018 Taxpayers Against Fraud, Annual Seminar “Ready, Aim, FOIA: A Targeted Approach to the Use of FOIA and Other Public Records Requests,” Washington, D.C.
• 2019 ABA False Claims Act Trial Institute, Plaintiff's Trial Team, Presentation of Plaintiff's Opening Statement, New York
  “A Few Things You Should Know About the False Claims Act,” JUSTLAW, Newsletter of the STLA, Fall 2013, https://southerntriallawyers.org/docs/3rdQuarter-2013.pdf

Education

• Furman University, Greenville, SC, B.A. 1984 in Political Science, with minor in History. Dean's List, Phi Delta Phi legal honor society.
• Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, J.D. 1989. Order of the Coif, Vanderbilt Law Review (editor), American Jurisprudence prize in Federal Evidence, Legal Ethics, and Negotiations.