WASHINGTON, DC – Four partners with Phillips & Cohen LLP have been selected to Washingtonian magazine’s 2013 list of “Washington’s Best Lawyers” for their work representing whistleblowers in “qui tam” (False Claims Act) cases and other government reward programs for whistleblowers.
Washingtonian named Peter W. Chatfield, Mary Louise Cohen, Erika A. Kelton and Colette Matzzie to the bi-annual list in its December issue. Each consistently has had many major successes with whistleblower cases.
In the past seven months, three big-name defendants settled separate qui tam cases Chatfield brought: Medical device company C.R. Bard paid $48.2 million to the government to settle; Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) paid $11.75 million; and CA Technologies, formerly known as Computer Associates, paid $11 million.
One of Cohen’s more recent qui tam cases resulted in the government collecting $75 million from Medtronic Spine LLC and an additional $74 million from 100 hospitals for Medicare billing fraud. She was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from Taxpayers Against Fraud Education Fund in October for her work representing whistleblowers for the past 25 years.
Kelton’s cases have set records for the largest government healthcare fraud recoveries. Most recently, she represented the lead whistleblowers in a qui tam case against GlaxoSmithKline for “off-label” (unapproved) marketing of prescription drugs for uses that endangered patients’ health and lives. Glaxo paid $3 billion in 2012 to settle that case and other qui tam cases and a criminal fine. Kelton was named “Whistleblower Lawyer of the Year” for 2012 by Taxpayers Against Fraud Education Fund for her work on the Glaxo case.
Matzzie’s successful cases in the past two years include one against Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc. for off-label marketing and kickbacks, which settled for $95 million, and a separate qui tam case against CIA contractors American Systems Corporation, Anixter International Inc., and Corning Cable Systems LLC, which settled for $3 million. Lawdragon magazine named Matzzie to its “500 Leading Lawyers in America” list in 2012 and 2013.
For more information about Phillips & Cohen’s record, see P&C’s Successful Whistleblower Cases.