Former assistant U.S. attorney joins Dickinson Wright’s Lexington office

LEXINGTON (May 22, 2017) – Dickinson Wright PLLC is pleased to announce that Andrew L. Sparks, former assistant United States attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky, has joined the firm’s Lexington office.

“We are excited to welcome Andrew Sparks to the firm’s Lexington office,” said David Owen. “Dickinson Wright is dedicated to expanding our services for businesses and their owners and executives. Andrew and Kerry Harvey, who recently joined us, have extensive experience in governmental investigations and enforcement, which strengthens our existing capabilities and expands into the health care and False Claims Act areas.”

Mr. Sparks assists clients with internal and government investigations, health care and False Claims Act matters, and commercial litigation. Before joining Dickinson Wright, he served as assistant United States attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky for 15 years. Mr. Sparks served as the chief of the fraud division, where he led the unit responsible for all matters involving health care fraud, financial fraud, bank fraud, tax fraud, public corruption, cybercrime, environmental crime and civil False Claims Act cases.

As an Assistant United States Attorney, Mr. Sparks successfully tried nearly two dozen civil and criminal cases. He served as lead prosecutor on multiple multi-month criminal trials and has argued over forty cases in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. He also served a detail at the Department of Justice’s Federal Programs Branch in Washington, D.C.

Mr. Sparks has also been an adjunct professor at the University of Kentucky College of Law, where he taught classes in litigation skills and legal writing. He has received commendations from numerous federal agencies, including the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Labor, the United States Postal Service, the United States of Bureau of Prisons, and the Internal Revenue Service. Mr. Sparks received his B.A. from Transylvania University and his J.D., with honors, from the University of Kentucky College of Law.