(Washington, DC) June 30, 2025 — Phillips & Cohen is pleased to announce that eleven of the firm’s partners – Mary Louise Cohen, Erika Kelton, Peter Chatfield, Colette Matzzie, Claire Sylvia, Stephen Hasegawa, Jeffrey Dickstein, Sean McKessy, Edward “Ned” Arens, Amy Easton, and Christopher Ehrman – have been named to Lawdragon’s “500 Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyers” list for 2025 for their outstanding achievements representing whistleblowers in False Claims Act litigation and in whistleblower matters before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). This is the seventh year that at least ten Phillips & Cohen partners have been named to Lawdragon’s “500 Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyers” list.
In 2024, Phillips & Cohen had an extraordinary year, with 10 settlements totaling over $200 million in returns to the government and harmed investors. The firm’s notable settlements in 2024 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.
- As a co-founder of Phillips & Cohen, Mary Louise Cohen has been dubbed “the Queen of Qui Tam” by Lawdragon for her work representing whistleblowers. Among her noteworthy cases is one against Quest Diagnostics, which settled for $302 million– the largest amount paid by a medical lab company for a faulty product. In 2022, Cohen was inducted into Lawdragon’s “Hall of Fame.”
- Erika Kelton has substantial 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. In 2024, Kelton represented a whistleblower who received a $4 million award from the CFTC and a whistleblower who received an award of $3.7 million from the SEC. In 2023, Lawdragon magazine named Kelton a legal “legend.”
- Peter Chatfield‘s successful whistleblower cases include 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 helped secure a settlement of over $53 million to resolve allegations that Paragon engaged in an unlawful scheme to obtain security officer service contracts set aside by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to be awarded to small businesses.
- Colette Matzzie has represented whistleblowers in a number of significant qui tam lawsuits involving recoveries for federal and state governments. Her work includes a groundbreaking case against electronic health records vendor eClinicalWorks, which settled for $155 million. In 2024, Matzzie helped secure a $6.5 million settlement with the Armstrong Group of Companies for allegedly submitting false claims to the Federal Communications Commission’s Universal Service Fund High Cost Program. Matzzie was named a Lawdragon “Legend” in 2022.
- 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 helped secure a $90 million settlement in a qui tam case brought against Humana for allegedly submitting fraudulent bids to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for Medicare Part D prescription drug contracts.
- Stephen Hasegawa has had significant False Claims Act wins, including a case against Office Depot, which settled for $68.5 million, where more than 1,000 California cities, counties, school districts, and other government entities were allegedly overcharged for office supplies. Hasegawa 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 X. McKessy is the founding former Chief of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of the Whistleblower. He represents whistleblowers and is considered one of the top authorities on corporate and securities whistleblower law. In 2022, McKessy secured a $20 million award for his client from the SEC, and in 2023, McKessy helped secure a $9 million reward for an SEC whistleblower client.
- Edward Arens has had numerous successes representing whistleblowers in large-scale whistleblower cases, including a 2023 settlement of $108.75 million against KBR Services, the largest cash settlement ever obtained in connection with Iraq War fraud. In 2024, Arens helped secure a $90 million settlement with Humana to settle allegations the company submitted fraudulent bids to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (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 laws, the Anti-Kickback statute, medical necessity, upcoding, risk adjustment and Medicare Advantage plans. Easton currently represents whistleblowers in a case in which the DOJ intervened and in January of 2025 resulted in a $29 million settlement with one of the six defendants for allegedly retaining years of erroneously inflated government medical care payments. Easton also represented a whistleblower and helped secure a $9.9 million settlement in a case in 2024 against a home health provider for False Claims Act violations.
- Christopher Ehrman was the Director of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) Whistleblower Office from 2013 until 2023. He served in the SEC’s Division of Enforcement as Assistant Director and in various other roles at the SEC for 14 years. Under his leadership at the CFTC, the whistleblower program achieved unparalleled success—with whistleblower awards totaling nearly $330 million and monetary sanctions from whistleblower tips exceeding $3 billion. Ehrman works on whistleblower cases before the CFTC, SEC, Department of Justice, and Department of the Treasury for Phillips & Cohen’s whistleblower clients.
Lawdragon’s “500 Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyers” list celebrates lawyers who excel in representing plaintiffs in securities, antitrust and whistleblower claims, complex financial litigation, and data privacy invasions. Lawdragon employs a combination of editorial research, law firm submissions, and a nomination system to select attorneys for its rankings.
About Phillips & Cohen LLP
With offices in Washington, D.C. and San Francisco, Phillips & Cohen has recovered over 13 billion for the government through the firm’s work representing whistleblowers. If you know of fraud against the government or violations of the Dodd -Frank Act and are interested in talking to an experienced whistleblower attorney, contact Phillips & Cohen for a free, confidential review of your case.