Sara Silva is an experienced trial lawyer who handles white-collar criminal and complex civil and commercial litigation in state and federal courts, administrative hearings, and government investigations and enforcement actions.
Sara's clients include global companies, executives, and licensed professionals; pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers; and public officials. She defends clients against allegations of kickbacks, overbilling, fraud, false statements, and public corruption. Her civil litigation work includes product liability defense, multi-district litigation, commercial litigation, and fraud actions.
Sara's practice covers all aspects of criminal and civil litigation from initial investigation through trial. She conducts internal investigations on behalf of corporate clients, responds to grand jury subpoenas and civil investigative demands issued by the Department of Justice, and develops and leads defense trial strategy in criminal prosecutions and civil cases. She has also built a reputation for defending individuals facing high-profile criminal charges, including public officials, executives, and foreign nationals. Additionally, Sara has extensive life sciences experience, having defended against allegations of Medicare and Medicaid over-billing, health care fraud, false and fraudulent promotion of drugs and devices, and wrongful death caused by manufacturing and design defects.
Sara developed a thorough knowledge of sentencing policies through her prior experience with the Federal Public and Community Defenders' National Sentencing Resource Project. While there, she drafted comments and testimony to the U.S. Sentencing Commission on proposed changes to the Sentencing Guidelines; co-authored amici curiae briefs before the U.S. Supreme Court; and traveled nationwide training lawyers on sentencing advocacy and practice.
She currently serves as the First Circuit representative on the U.S. Sentencing Commission's Practitioners Advisory Group, a standing advisory group of criminal defense practitioners selected by the commission to provide advice on federal sentencing policy from the defense perspective.