Washington DC April 23, 2019 – Four Phillips & Cohen partners – Mary Louise Cohen, Erika Kelton, Peter Chatfield and Colette Matzzie – have been selected to Super Lawyers 2019 list for Washington, DC, for their work representing whistleblowers and contributions to the field.
Super Lawyers bases its lists of exceptional attorneys on peer nominations, independent research and peer evaluations. Only 5 percent of lawyers in Washington, DC, are selected for the distinction.
Mary Louise Cohen, a founding partner of the firm, has been named to Super Lawyers’ list eight times since 2009. Her work representing whistleblowers has earned her the title of “the queen of qui tam,” as well as the Lifetime Achievement Award from Taxpayers against Fraud Education Fund.
Erika Kelton, an internationally recognized whistleblower attorney, has set records with cases brought under the False Claims Act and under the whistleblower program of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Her cases have yielded a $3 billion healthcare fraud settlement by GlaxoSmithKline and earned an international whistleblower client a $32 million award from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Colette Matzzie, a former Department of Justice attorney, has won many major cases for her whistleblower clients. Her case against electronic health records vendor eClinicalWorks was an important industry first. It resulted in a $155 million settlement with the government and Ms. Matzzie’s television appearance with her client on the CBS series “Whistleblower.”
Peter Chatfield has represented whistleblowers in significant qui tam lawsuits taking on major healthcare companies. His whistleblower cases have resulted in an $881 million settlement by HCA, a $425 million settlement by Cephalon and a $118.7 million by Adventist Health Systems.
Super Lawyers also selected Phillips & Cohen attorney Molly Knobler to its 2019 “Rising Star” list.
Phillips & Cohen has the longest standing practice dedicated solely to representing whistleblowers and is the most successful. Cases brought by the firm’s attorneys on behalf of its whistleblower clients have recovered more than $12.3 billion that otherwise would have been lost to fraud and corporate wrongdoing. Phillips & Cohen represents US and international whistleblowers in qui tam lawsuits and whistleblower claims with the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.