Stephen M. Kohn
Stephen M. Kohn is an American attorney and founding partner of the Washington, D.C. law firm Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto, which focuses on employment law. He wrote the first legal treatise on whistleblowing and is widely regarded as a leading expert on whistleblower protection. He has also written about political prisoners and the history of protest rights.
Education: He earned a B.S. in Social Education from Boston University in 1979, an M.A. in political science from Brown University in 1981, and a J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law in 1984. While at Boston University, he helped found BU Exposure, a student newspaper that exposed ethical issues in the administration of BU president John Silber.
Career: After law school, he was an adjunct professor and clinical supervisor at the Antioch School of Law (1984–1988), running a whistleblower protections clinic. He later served as clinical director and director of corporate litigation for the Government Accountability Project.
Whistleblower work: Kohn has represented whistleblowers in notable cases, including the O.J. Simpson murder case, the 1993 World Trade Center bombing prosecutions, the Oklahoma City bombing case, the Linda Tripp privacy act case, and the Bradley Birkenfeld UBS tax evasion case. One client was Dr. Frederic Whitehurst, an FBI Crime Lab whistleblower; Kohn helped present Whitehurst's 1995 testimony to Congress.
Public interest work: In 2006 he was the Daynard Public Interest Visiting Fellow at Northeastern University School of Law. He is the founder and chairman of the National Whistleblower Center and serves as attorney-trustee for the National Whistleblower Legal Defense and Education Fund.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 19:08 (CET).