Washington, DC, August 25, 2025 – Twelve Phillips & Cohen attorneys have been selected for Best Lawyers in America®’s 2026 edition for their work representing whistleblowers. The attorneys include Mary Louise Cohen, Erika Kelton, Peter Chatfield, Colette Matzzie, Claire Sylvia, Stephen Hasegawa, Jeffrey Dickstein, Sean McKessy, Edward “Ned” Arens, Amy Easton, Matthew Smith, and of counsel, Larry Zoglin. All 12 attorneys were selected as Best Lawyers in America® in 2025 as well.
The attorneys represent whistleblowers in False Claims Act (FCA) litigation and whistleblower matters before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Best Lawyers’ lists are based on feedback received from other top lawyers working in the same practice areas and geographic regions.
Best Lawyers in America 2026:
- Mary Louise Cohen is a co-founder of Phillips & Cohen LLP and a key voice in shaping the contemporary False Claims Act practice. Her noteworthy qui tam wins include a case against TAP Pharmaceuticals for allegedly paying illegal kickbacks to doctors, which settled for $875 million, and a case against Quest Diagnostics that was settled for $302 million, the largest amount paid by a medical lab company for a faulty healthcare product.
- Erika Kelton has extensive experience representing FCA, SEC, and CFTC whistleblowers. She won two of the largest healthcare fraud settlements ever: $3 billion by GlaxoSmithKline and $2.3 billion by Pfizer. Kelton has also won what is likely the largest SEC whistleblower award made to international whistleblowers: a $40 million reward in 2022 and an award for over $32 million in a case involving massive securities fraud. In 2024, Kelton won two whistleblower awards for her clients: a settlement with the SEC, earning the whistleblower a $3.7 million award, and a settlement with the CFTC, awarding the whistleblower over $4 million. Kelton also secured a $20 million award for a client under the IRS whistleblower program. Kelton has secured the most SEC/CFTC awards under the Dodd-Frank Act for her whistleblower clients.
- Peter Chatfield’s successes include representing the whistleblower in a qui tam case against HCA, one of the nation’s largest healthcare providers, which was the basis for a majority share of HCA’s $881 million settlement with the government. In 2024, Chatfield settled, along with Phillips & Cohen partner John Tremblay, a $53.68 million lawsuit with Paragon Systems for allegedly creating a scheme to obtain security officer service contracts set aside by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to be awarded to small businesses owned by veterans, women, and other disadvantaged groups.
- Colette Matzzie has represented whistleblowers in a number of significant qui tam lawsuits involving recoveries for both federal and state governments. Her successes including groundbreaking settlements against electronic health records vendors eClinicalWorks for $155 million, Modernizing Medicine for $45 million, and NextGen Healthcare for $31 million. In 2024, Matzzie secured a settlement with the Armstrong Group of Companies for $6.5 million to resolve allegations the companies submitted false claims to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)’s Universal Service Fund (USF) High Cost Program.
- Claire Sylvia is a nationally recognized authority in False Claims Act qui tam matters. Her book, The False Claims Act: Fraud Against The Government (4th Ed 2023 & Supp. 2024), has been an important reference since it was first published in 2004. In 2024, Sylvia, along with partner Edward Arens, secured a $90 million settlement with Humana to resolve allegations of submitting fraudulent bids to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for Medicare Part D prescription drug contracts, significantly overcharging the government.
- Stephen Hasegawa has represented whistleblowers in cases involving healthcare, defense, aerospace, financial services, and government procurement. He helped secure a $75 million settlement against a subsidiary of Community Health Systems Inc. and three hospitals for allegations the hospitals improperly increased federal payments intended for indigent patient care and obtained a $22.8 million settlement against Linde GmbH and Linde Engineering North America for evading US customs duties. In 2024, Hasegawa secured a $12 million settlement with CityMD for billing the federal COVID-19 uninsured program for tests performed on insured patients.
- As a former Assistant US Attorney, Jeffrey Dickstein brings more than 30 years of healthcare litigation experience to his work for whistleblowers in Medicare and Medicaid fraud cases. Dickstein is currently involved in healthcare fraud matters involving the Affordable Care Act, Medicare Part C Advantage Plans, Medicare Part D drug plans, Military health plans, medically unnecessary procedures, medical device fraud, medically unnecessary diagnostic testing, Kickbacks, and upcoding.
- Sean McKessy, the first Chief of the SEC Whistleblower Office and the principal architect of the SEC’s whistleblower program, brings unparalleled knowledge of the SEC’s whistleblower program to his work for whistleblowers. He represents clients before the SEC and the CFTC and has won for his clients awards of $20 million, $1.25 million, and $9 million.
- Edward Arens has had success representing whistleblowers in a number of large-scale cases, including a 2023 whistleblower case against KBR for allegedly defrauding the United States Army in connection with materials used for the Iraq War that settled for over $108 million. In 2024, Arens, along with partner Claire Sylvia, secured a $90 million settlement with Humana to resolve False Claims Act allegations for overcharging the government by submitting fraudulent bids to CMS for Medicare Part D prescription drug contracts.
- A former Department of Justice senior trial counsel, Amy Easton’s successes include government interventions and settlements for False Claims Act cases involving healthcare matters, including allegations regarding the Stark Law, the Anti-Kickback statute, medical necessity, upcoding, risk adjustment and Medicare Advantage plans. Easton successfully secured a settlement against a West Virginia hospital for violating the False Claims Act, Stark Law, and Anti-Kickback Statute, yielding a $50 million settlement. Easton currently represents whistleblowers in a case in which the DOJ intervened and in January 2025 resulted in a $29 million settlement with one of the six defendants for allegedly retaining inflated government medical care payments.
- Matthew Smith has had decades of success representing whistleblowers. Smith, along with his colleague Peter Chatfield, helped secure a majority share of HCA’s $881 million global settlement with the government. In addition, Smith was on the team that pursued a case against Kyphon/Medtronic Spine and hundreds of hospitals for a fraudulent billing scheme, recovering $180 million for the government. Smith is also involved with the development of potential new whistleblower cases for Phillips & Cohen.
- Larry Zoglin represents whistleblowers in qui tam cases as well as under the SEC and IRS whistleblower programs. He was the lead attorney in a qui tam case alleging skilled nursing facilities owned by the Ensign Group were engaged in a Medicare billing fraud scheme that settled for $48 million. Zoglin also served as co-lead counsel with Colette Matzzie in the eClinicalWorks case that settled for $155 million.
In 2024, Phillips & Cohen had an exceptional year, with nine settlements totaling over $200 million returned to the government and harmed investors. The firm’s notable settlements include a settlement with Independent Health, affiliates, and a CEO for up to $98 million, a settlement with Humana for $90 million, a settlement with the SEC, earning the whistleblower a $3.7 million award, and a settlement with the CFTC, awarding the whistleblower over $4 million. Phillips & Cohen has 24 whistleblower awards under the Dodd-Frank Act, the most of any law firm. Phillips & Cohen is the most successful law firm representing whistleblowers, with recoveries from our lawsuits totaling over $13 billion.
If you are aware of fraud against the government or corporate wrongdoing that violates securities or commodities laws and would like to discuss your situation with experienced whistleblower lawyers, contact Phillips & Cohen for a free, confidential case review.