Thad McIntosh Guyer (born January 29, 1950) is an American civil rights and whistleblower lawyer, lecturer and advisor with an international law practice based in Oregon.
He is a trial, appellate and international litigation attorney with the Government Accountability Project, a non-profit whistleblower rights organization based in Washington, DC.
Guyer is known for challenging of the wrongful termination of Shawn Carpenter by Sandia National Laboratories, which The New Yorker called foundational in dealing with government-sponsored "digital vigilantism."
Guyer and his law partner Stephani L. Ayers co-counseled the case with American civil liberties lawyer Philip B. Davis.
Carpenter was not somebody...who became bored with his administrative-nature job and then just started trying to become a cybersleuth," The New Yorker quotes Guyer as saying during his closing argument at the trial.
"His had to do with protecting the national security.”[9] Guyer has worked with the Government Accountability Project (GAP), one of the world's first whistleblower advocacy NGOs, for more than two decades.
He has collaborated on numerous cases with GAP Legal Director Thomas M. Devine, who is a contributor on the U.S. Whistleblower Protection Act.
[10] In 2004 Guyer, law partner Stephani Ayers and San Francisco attorney Tony Bothwell successfully represented two police union officials who were fired after reporting security mismanagement at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory plutonium weapons facility.
[12] In 2011 Guyer and law partner Stefani Ayers successfully settled a whistleblower retaliation on behalf of U.S. Air Force aircraft mechanic George Sarris.
Under the settlement, Sarris maintained his mechanic position, derogatory files were removed, and his performance appraisal was restored to "excellent" or "outstanding.
Pruitt resigned five months later following accusations of ethical misconduct including overspending, using staff for personal errands, and inappropriate relationships with lobbyists.
[15] Other cases include: • Brown v. Secretary-General of the United Nations[16] • Yasmina Laasri v. Secretary-General of the United Nations[17] • Nguyen-Kropp & Postica v. Secretary-General of the United Nations [18] • Mariela Antiga Bovio v. IDB (Inter-American Development Bank) [19] Guyer delivered the paper, “The Whistleblower Dilemma: Understanding the Nature, Legal Dimensions and Control of ‘Information’ ” in Sarajevo in November 2021, at the annual meeting of the Regional Anti-Corruption Initiative and the Southeast Europe Coalition on Whistleblower Protection.
[31] Guyer co-authored a chapter on whistleblower protection with Mark Worth for the Elgar Concise Encyclopedia of Corruption Law, scheduled for publication in November 2023.