About the Speakers
Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts in 2009, prior to his appointment, Mr. Loucks was the First Assistant U.S. Attorney since 1995 and has been with the office for over 20 years. As First Assistant, Mr. Loucks was responsible for all federal criminal law enforcement in Massachusetts, and for handling defense and civil matters on behalf of the U.S. Government. During his tenure, he has also been appointed as Chief of the White Collar Crime Section and Health Care Fraud Unit. Mr. Loucks has prosecuted and supervised many significant health care cases such as: US v. Tap Pharmaceutical Products Inc. (2001) which resulted in a global settlement of $875 million and the Pfizer conviction (2004) for crimes involved in off-label promotion of a drug used for epilepsy treatment. Mr. Loucks graduated Harvard magna cum laude and received his law degree from the University of Virginia.
Allison M. Zieve
Allison M. Zieve is director of the Public Citizen Litigation Group and the its Supreme Court Assistance Project. Ms. Zieve also serves as General Counsel of Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization representing consumer interests in Congress, the executive branch and the courts. Her practice areas include drug safety & food labeling issues, consumer safety standards, open government, federal preemption, class action abuse, and first amendment issues. Ms. Zieve has published articles on preemption of state-law damages actions, tobacco regulation, and the Freedom of Information Act. She has also taught appellate advocacy as an adjunct professor at American University Washington College of Law. She is a graduate of Brown University and Yale Law School.
Wells Wilkinson
Director and Staff Attorney at Prescription Access Litigation (PAL), an organization which works to make prescription drug prices more affordable for consumers, using class action litigation and public education. He coordinates PAL’s consumer advocacy organizations, and oversees its pharmaceutical class action lawsuits and public education activities. Prior to joining PAL, Mr. Wilkinson worked for the Social Security Administration, preparing disability cases for agency hearings, while also starting a small private practice focusing on consumer protection. From 1991-01, he became active in local grassroots political work as an intern and staff person with Boston Mobilization - working on peace, health care reform, globalization, community and youth organizing. Wilkinson also worked on healthcare reform with Citizens for Participation in Political Action and the Massachusetts Campaign for Single-Payer Health Care in the mid-1990s. He holds a B.A. in Biology from Boston University, and a JD from New England School of Law.
Robin Lunge
Legislative Counsel focused on health and human services legislation and budget issues with the Vermont Legislative Council since 2003. During a leave of absence from the Vermont legislature, she worked as a policy analyst with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and as the policy director for NLARx. Prior to 2003, Robin worked as a staff attorney for Vermont Legal Aid for 6 years and as a law clerk for the Vermont trial courts. Robin received her B.A. in sociology from the University of California: Santa Cruz and her law degree from Cornell University.
Ann Woloson
Executive Director of Prescription Policy Choices, a nonprofit, educational and public policy organization which provides objective research, information, and expertise on prescription drug policy. As a former chief of staff to the Maine Senate Majority Leader for over 3 years, Ms. Woloson provided expertise regarding health care service delivery, financing and overall health care reform. Prior to her work at the Maine Legislature, Ann worked as a health care policy analyst and advocate for several years in Maine's nonprofit sector and also as a policy writer for the Maine State Medicaid Program - MaineCare. She has served on numerous health care related boards including the Governor's Health Action Team, and previously chaired the State Medicaid Advisory Committee. Ms. Woloson was also an active member of Maine's Dual Diagnosis Task Force aimed at improving care for people suffering from both mental illness and substance abuse.
Representative Sharon Treat of Maine
Executive Director of the National Legislative Association on Prescription Drug Prices, a nonpartisan organization of state legislators working jointly to reduce prescription drug prices and expand access to medicines, and Legal Project Director for Prescription Policy Choices. Rep. Treat is in her 18th year in the Maine Legislature. She has served in both the Maine House and Senate, including two years as Senate Majority Leader and two as Assistant Leader. Rep. Treat is House Chair of the Insurance & Financial Services Committee and serves on the Maine Citizen Trade Advisory Commission. She is a recognized expert on pharmaceutical policy and has testified on these issues before the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging and numerous state legislatures. Rep. Treat has sponsored several pathbreaking Maine laws addressing drug pricing and access including pharmacy benefit manager transparency and fiduciary duty provisions, regulation of predatory marking tactics aimed at children and the elderly, the MaineRx Plus discount drug program, data mining regulation and marketing disclosure. Rep. Treat has an A.B. degree from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and graduated with honors from Georgetown University Law Center. She has served as an attorney with the Natural Resources Council of Maine, as well as in state government and private practices. She has also taught environmental law at several colleges in Maine and at the University of Maine Law School.
Professor Sean Flynn
Associate Director of the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property (PIJIP). Prof. Flynn teaches courses on the intersection of intellectual property and human rights.
Prof. Flynn’s primary research focus is on legal frameworks governing access to essential goods and services, including constitutional and human rights law, intellectual property law, utility regulation, antitrust and consumer protection law. Prior to joining WCL, Prof. Flynn completed clerkships with Chief Justice Arthur Chaskalson on the South African Constitutional Court and with Judge Raymond Fisher on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Prof. Flynn also represented consumers and local governments in private practice with the law firm Spiegel & McDiarmid and as Senior Attorney for the Consumer Project on Technology in Washington D.C. He has also taught Advanced Topics in Constitutional Law at the University of Witwaterstrand, South Africa, and Legal Reasoning and Argument at Harvard Law School.
