Ainslie studied art at Smith college before eventually deciding on law. illustrations and paintings—
including one or two of her own—line the walls of her office.
occupied a decade earlier. In 1996, Durand
formally hired Ainslie and they filed suit
against TAP shortly thereafter.
Over the next five years, Ainslie
covered Durand’s expenses while
providing federal prosecutors with
whatever information they needed. In
the end, TAP agreed to pay $875 million
to settle the charges stemming from its
manipulation of Medicare and Medicaid,
the largest settlement for health care
fraud in U.S. history.
While Ainslie is modest in recalling
her role, Welsh tells a different story:
“Imagine deciding to take on a $20 billion
pharmaceutical company with a virtually
endless supply of legal and financial
resources,” he says. “This was Joan of Arc
going up against heavily financed experts
and legal teams. And had the government
chosen to not pursue the case, she would
have had that tiger by the tail. This was
exceptional. You can’t talk about the
career of Liz Ainslie without talking about
that case.”
In 1999, her partner decided to run
for a judgeship, and while Ainslie was
considering if she wanted to find a
replacement, Schnader called. They
were looking to expand their white-collar
criminal practice, and Ainslie seemed like
the perfect fit.
“From the time she walked in the door,
she was one of the most experienced trial
lawyers we’d seen,” says Suplee. “Nothing
compares to someone with those kind of
hours logged in the courtroom.”
In addition to her trial work at Schnader,
Ainslie has also handled settlement
conferences for the Court of Common
Pleas of Philadelphia County and has been
first chair in two International Chamber of
Commerce arbitrations, all while teaching
trial practice courses at Harvard, the
Attorney General’s Advocacy Institute, the
Academy for Advocacy, and the Beasley
School of Law.
“I couldn’t ask for more interesting
work,” says Ainslie. “I’ve never pretended to
be anyone other than who I am, and I think
people can sense that when I’m trying a
case. I had a client say to me once after a
trial, ‘You know, I thought you would be a
different Liz in the courtroom, but you’re
not.’ I’m very proud of that.”