NEW YORK CITY, Feb. 23, 2022 – Lawdragon has selected five Phillips & Cohen partners to its 2022 list of “500 Leading Lawyers in America” for their work representing whistleblowers.
The magazine named Erika Kelton, Peter Chatfield, Colette Matzzie, Stephen Hasegawa and Sean McKessy to its annual list, which includes Supreme Court justices, civil rights attorneys, top defense lawyers and other leading litigators.
Only seven of the 500 attorneys honored on the “Leading Lawyers” list have law practices that represent whistleblowers, according to Lawdragon.
“They win,” said Lawdragon about the 500 lawyers on the list, “finding justice where there was little hope, and a newfound and surprising accountability.”
Earlier this month, Erika Kelton won a $37 million whistleblower award from the US Securities and Exchange Commission for two clients. It was likely the largest award issued to international whistleblowers. She previously won a $32 million SEC whistleblower award for another international client.
Peter Chatfield has had great success representing whistleblower alleging healthcare fraud, including qui tam (whistleblower) cases brought against HCA (part of an $881 million settlement), Cephalon ($425 million settlement) and Adventist Health Systems ($118.7 million settlement).
Colette Matzzie is leading the way in whistleblower cases involving electronic health records. She represented a whistleblower in a ground-breaking case against eClinicalWorks, which settled for $155 million. She also pursued a qui tam case against Konica Minolta Healthcare Americas, which settled for $500,000.
Stephen Hasegawa achieved a recent $22.8 million settlement that was one of the largest for a whistleblower case alleging avoidance of customs duties.
Sean McKessy, a former Chief of the Securities and Exchange Commission whistleblower program, has been a leading voice in efforts to reverse harmful changes to whistleblower award rules the SEC made during the previous administration. He is frequently interviewed by journalists for his views on SEC whistleblower matters.
This is the second year in a row that Lawdragon has selected these five partners for its “Leading Lawyers” list.
About Phillips & Cohen LLP
Phillips & Cohen is the nation’s most successful law firm representing whistleblowers. The firm’s cases have helped recover more than $12.8 billion in civil settlements and criminal fines. Phillips & Cohen represents whistleblowers in qui tam lawsuits as well as whistleblower claims with the reward programs of the SEC, CFTC and IRS. To find out how we can help you with your whistleblower case, contact us.