Royston Harlow Delaney

Delaney Kester LLP is a law partnership founded by Royston Delaney and Charles Kester.  The two men first began working together in 2006.  The case that brought them together was United States ex rel. Westmoreland v. Amgen, Inc. et al, a gargantuan whistleblower case that spanned the next six years.

Like most False Claims Act cases, the Amgen case was filed under seal and it remained undisclosed until it was unsealed and made public in November 2009.  An amended complaint was filed before the end of that calendar year and intense litigation with the defendants began in earnest.  Over the next two years, attorneys Delaney and Kester worked together along with a hand-picked team of attorneys around the country, both in private practice and in public service, to litigate the claims against biotech giant Amgen. 

The hard-fought litigation saw numerous twists and turns:  the federal trial court dismissed the Westmoreland case in its entirety in March 2010; thereafter, the legal team filed an amended complaint and, at the same time, pursued the trial court’s dismissal to the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit; intense discovery went ahead on the amended complaint, including almost 100 depositions; six witnesses “took the Fifth” in their depositions; the Court of Appealsreversed the original dismissal and the parallel tracks converged.  Yet another amended pleading survived a renewed motion to dismiss and summary judgment.  Trial was set for mid-October 2011.  But with just three weeks to go, in late-September 2011, Amgen capitulated and advised the trial judge that a compromise had been reached.  The next month, Amgen announced to the world that the case, along with others under investigation, was settled for $762 million dollars.

Delaney Kester LLP is a law partnership forged in the crucible of high-stakes litigation, and it is dedicated to representing whistleblowers across America.