WASHINGTON, DC, February 13, 2015 – Best Lawyers in America has listed Phillips & Cohen partner Mary Louise Cohen in its 2015 edition.
Cohen is the co-founder of Phillips & Cohen LLP and has been a leader in the qui tam field since soon after Congress passed the amended False Claims Act in 1986, strengthening its whistleblower provisions. Her qui tam cases have recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for taxpayers and protected the health and lives of patients.
For instance, Quest Diagnostics paid $302 million to the government to settle a whistleblower case alleging a subsidiary was selling a faulty medical test that doctors relied on to make treatment decisions about dialysis patients. It was the largest settlement ever paid by a medical lab for a faulty product.
Best Lawyers is the oldest legal peer-review organization in the US.
The False Claims Act allows private citizens to file civil (‘qui tam”) lawsuits on behalf of the government against companies that are defrauding the government and recover damages on its behalf. Liable companies may be required to pay three times the government’s damages plus fines for each violation. The law rewards whistleblowers with 15 percent to 30 percent of the amount the government recovers.
Phillips & Cohen has the longest-standing and most successful practice representing whistleblowers in the US. The firm’s cases have resulted in governments recovering more than $11.6 billion.