WASHINGTON, DC, April 8, 2020 – For their outstanding work as whistleblower attorneys, five Phillips & Cohen partners have been named to Lawdragon’s 2020 list of the “500 Leading Lawyers in America.”
Lawdragon selected Phillips & Cohen partners Mary Louise Cohen, Erika Kelton, Peter Chatfield, Colette Matzzie and Stephen Hasegawa for its annual elite list.
- Mary Louise Cohen is one of the firm’s founding partners and has represented whistleblowers for more than 25 years in False Claims Act cases, including important cases like the $875 million settlement with TAP Pharmaceutical Products Inc. Lawdragon previously named Cohen “a legend for creating [the] qui tam/whistleblower practice.”
- Erika Kelton is internationally recognized for her record-setting work representing whistleblowers. She represented the leading whistleblowers in two of the largest healthcare fraud settlements ever: $3 billion by GlaxoSmithKline and $2.3 billion by Pfizer. In addition, she won one of the largest awards under the SEC whistleblower program – more than $32 million – for a whistleblower client.
- Peter Chatfield has had great success for his whistleblower clients over the past two decades representing whistleblowers, particularly in complex, large-scale healthcare fraud cases. One of his more recent cases recovered over $54 million from blood-testing labs that allegedly cheated Medicare.
- Colette Matzzie has represented whistleblowers in a number of important cases, including the landmark eClinicalWorks case that marked the first major fraud case against an electronic health records vendor and returned $155 million to the federal government.
- Stephen Hasegawa represents whistleblowers in a broad variety of cases. Most recently, he represented a whistleblower in a qui tam case that was part of a broad $39.5 million settlement against ResMed. Hasegawa also represented the doctor who brought a qui tam case against Freedom Health, which settled for $32.5 million. It was the largest settlement so far of a False Claims Act case against a Medicare Advantage plan.
Both Chatfield and Matzzie were featured on the CBS “Whistleblower” series, which reported on three of their qui tam cases.
Chatfield’s qui tam case against Cephalon was the subject of a “Whistleblower” segment. The False Claims Act lawsuit alleged the the drug maker engaged in an illegal off-label marketing scheme that pushed doctors to prescribe Actiq, an addictive fentanyl medication.
“Whistleblower” also featured a segment on Matzzie’s eClinicalWorks case and a separate story about her whistleblower client who exposed alleged overpayments and quality failures by a food-services contractor serving the Washington, DC, public school system.
Two or more Phillips & Cohen attorneys have been included in Lawdragon’s annual “500 Leading Lawyers in America” lists since 2008.
If you are aware of fraud against the government or corporate wrongdoing that violates securities or commodities laws and would like to review your matter with one of Phillips & Cohen’s experienced whistleblower attorneys, contact us for a free, confidential consultation.
ABOUT PHILLIPS & COHEN LLP
Phillips & Cohen is the most successful law firm representing whistleblowers, with recoveries from our cases totaling over $12.3 billion. We have been recognized for our work by numerous national awards. Our attorneys and cases have been in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times and other news media. Phillips & Cohen’s roster includes former federal prosecutors, the first head of the SEC Office of the Whistleblower, a former deputy administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the author of a leading treatise on the False Claims Act and attorneys with decades of experience representing whistleblowers.