When attorney Kirk Ogrosky, AB ’92, assumed the role of deputy chief of the criminal fraud section at the Department of Justice in 2006, the government’s strategy for examining fraud against federal health-care programs required modernization — and he set out to accomplish just that.

Historically, Medicare and Medicaid employed a “pay and chase” approach, wherein payments were scrutinized long after they had been issued. This provided fraudsters ample opportunity to shut down operations, relocate, and keep billing the government for fake prescriptions or unneeded medical equipment under a different identity.

Ogrosky’s Medicare Fraud Strike Force turned the situation around. The team became the initial law-enforcement entity to utilize advanced data analysis to detect deceptive billing patterns almost immediately after they emerged. This innovative strategy resulted in a 40% rise in annual indictments. Since its establishment, the strike force has prosecuted over 5,800 defendants who collectively billed health-care programs in excess of $30 billion.

In 2010, Ogrosky, who obtained his law degree from George Washington University, transitioned to the private sector. Now a partner in Goodwin Procter LLP’s government enforcement defense unit in Washington, D.C., he collaborates with a team of former federal prosecutors to represent pharmaceutical and medical device firms, educational hospitals, doctors, executives, and researchers. Additionally, he teaches a course on health-care fraud as an adjunct law professor at Georgetown University.

Ogrosky’s 30-year legal career — featuring 10 years as a federal prosecutor — has its beginnings at WashU, where he studied economics and psychology. Appreciative of his education, he contributes by serving on the Arts & Sciences National Council and the Washington-Baltimore Regional Cabinet. He also joined the Parents Council after his daughter, Margo, Class of 2026, chose to enroll at WashU. He and his wife, Holly Barker, contribute to scholarships.

What does WashU mean to you?

My WashU education has inspired a lifetime of curiosity and inquiry. As an only child from a rural Kentucky community with a high school graduating class of 75, my experience at the university was transformative. It was a period for me to explore music, art, literature, philosophy, and much more. I also formed lifelong friendships at WashU. While I gained significant knowledge from my professors, I learned just as much from my friends and peers.

How did your time at WashU influence your career?

During high school, I believed I would attend law school, but I had no personal connections to lawyers or understanding of what practicing law entailed.

In my initial year at WashU, I enjoyed both microeconomics and macroeconomics, but I found myself more engaged with the material in microeconomics courses. In my sophomore year, I enrolled in the “Theory of Property Rights,” co-instructed by economics professors John Drobak, who also holds the George Alexander Madill Professorship of Real Property & Equity Jurisprudence at WashU Law, and the late Douglass North. The course enabled me to conceptualize economics in a novel manner and led me to pursue psychology as my second major.

I perceived at the time that the assumptions economists made in their models often lacked the depth that psychologists contributed. Professor Drobak further ignited my interest in the study of law and provided a reference for my law school applications.

WashU offers one of the premier undergraduate educational experiences globally. My evenings and weekends spent in Olin Library cultivated my work ethic, organizational capabilities, and writing proficiency. Writing was perhaps my weakest skill when I entered WashU, and the Arts & Sciences curriculum aided me in enhancing that aptitude. Persuasive and focused writing is among the most vital skills for a trial attorney. Additionally, you need to comprehend how individuals think and respond when faced with various types of evidence, and gaining in-depth knowledge of this is part of the benefit of an Arts & Sciences education.

What motivates you to give back?

I could not have attended WashU without financial assistance. My parents and grandparents were public school educators, and I was a Pell Grant recipient and work-study student.

For three years as an undergraduate, I managed student phonathon callers who raised funds for the university. The alumni we communicated with enabled students like me to attend WashU. While my initial contribution to the university during my junior year in 1991 was modest, it represented a way for me to give back. I believe it is essential for the WashU community to support scholarships. My scholarship provided me with a world-class education, an engaging career, and now a shared journey with my daughter.

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