Biography
Admitted in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the U.S. Supreme Court
Mr. Charles Kocher is a Partner with McOmber McOmber & Luber, P.C. in the firm’s Marlton, New Jersey office. He focuses his practice in the areas of employment law, class actions, business disputes, and business law. Mr. Kocher has successfully litigated and resolved wage and hour class actions and is currently pursuing several national collective actions and class actions for violations of wage and hour laws to recover monies owed to groups of workers. In addition to fighting for fair wages and equal treatment under the law for his clients, Mr. Kocher has deep experience in the representation of whistleblowers in health care fraud cases brought under the federal False Claims Act and the New Jersey False Claims Act. The federal False Claims Act was enacted in 1863 by Congress during the Civil War that was concerned that suppliers of goods were defrauding the Army. Using the modern version of these statutes today that create incentives for private individuals to report government fraud, Mr. Kocher roots out corruption wherever it hides, which may result in a monetary award to his clients in the event of a recovery for the government. Mr. Kocher also pursues data breach class actions to bring justice to those who have had their personal private information compromised or misused as a result of the negligence of companies and organizations.
Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Kocher was a member of the class action practice group at Saltz Mongeluzzi & Bendesky P.C. located in Philadelphia. For over a decade, Mr. Kocher developed a leading national class action practice, providing representation to individuals and businesses in cases involving wage and hour claims, product liability and product defect, consumer fraud and deception, health care fraud, and electronic data breach litigation. Mr. Kocher’s practice also focused on antitrust, unfair competition and complex business litigation. Mr. Kocher was a team leader in one of the largest antitrust class actions in the United States – the Containerboard Products Antitrust Litigation that resulted in partial settlements of $376 million. Mr. Kocher also was counsel in the Dental Supplies Antitrust Litigation that settled for $80 million. His creative use of the class action device has also resulted in what is believed to be the first certified class action brought under the Pennsylvania Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act to recover monies for victims of a Ponzi scheme. As a result of Mr. Kocher’s class action practice, he has tirelessly worked to obtain class-wide settlements in excess of $479 million. When even the lawyers have legal issues, they have called Mr. Kocher.
Education, Training, and Experience
Mr. Kocher is a cum laude graduate of Georgetown University (2001) and holds a J.D. law degree from the Villanova University School of Law (2004), where he served as a managing editor of the Villanova Law Review. Upon graduation from law school, Mr. Kocher was a law clerk for U.S. District Judge Clarence C. Newcomer, a celebrated judge who sat on the federal bench in Philadelphia for more than 30 years. Following his federal clerkship, Mr. Kocher worked at one of the largest and most prestigious law firms in the United States.
Honors and Memberships
From 2013 through 2019, Mr. Kocher was selected to the Pennsylvania Super Lawyer – Rising Star, a listing of the top 2.5 percent of attorneys in the state who are 40 years old or younger.
An active alumnus of Villanova Law School, Mr. Kocher sits on the Board of Advisors for the Villanova Law Alumni Association. He is a past member for nearly 20 years of the Villanova Law J. Willard O’Brien American Inn of Court, a nationally recognized and award-winning member of the American Inns of Court – the oldest legal mentoring organization in the country. He also a member of the National Employment Lawyers Association – New Jersey.
Mr. Kocher has served as a presenter at the Employment Law Institute, including co-presenting on cutting edge topics such as Artificial Intelligence: It’s Everything and Everywhere, but Where is it (and What are the Risks of its Use) in Employment?