Twelve Phillips & Cohen Attorneys Named to Best Lawyers in America® 2027 List

Recognized for Excellence in Whistleblower Representation

Washington, DC, August 20, 2026 – Twelve Phillips & Cohen attorneys have been selected for Best Lawyers in America®’s 2027 edition for their work representing whistleblowers. The attorneys include Mary Louise Cohen, Erika Kelton, Colette Matzzie, Claire Sylvia, Stephen Hasegawa, Jeffrey Dickstein, Sean McKessy, Edward Arens, Amy Easton, Matthew Smith, John Tremblay, and of counsel, Larry Zoglin. The attorneys represent whistleblowers in False Claims Act (FCA) litigation and whistleblower matters before the US 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.

• 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.  Cohen also helped secure a settlement with a Medtronic subsidiary and more than 100 hospitals alleging a fraudulent Medicare billing scheme, which led to a nationwide enforcement effort that has recovered nearly $180 million for taxpayers.
• Erika Kelton  is an internationally celebrated whistleblower attorney whose work has yielded record-setting settlements.  She won two of the largest healthcare fraud settlements ever: $3 billion with GlaxoSmithKline and $2.3 billion with Pfizer. In 2026, Kelton helped secure over a $46 million settlement with Veloxis Pharmaceuticals to resolve criminal and civil allegations that the company paid kickbacks to induce prescriptions and purchases of a kidney transplant immunosuppression drug. Kelton has also secured the most SEC/CFTC awards under the Dodd-Frank Act for her whistleblower clients, including what is likely the largest SEC whistleblower award made to international whistleblowers: a $40 million reward and an award for over $32 million in a case involving massive securities fraud. Kelton also secured a $20 million award for a client under the IRS whistleblower program.
• Colette Matzzie has represented whistleblowers in 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. The eClinicalWorks case and another whistleblower case she brought against Chartwells, a school food services contractor, were prominently featured in episodes of the CBS show, Whistleblower. 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’s Universal Service Fund 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 (4^th Ed 2023 & Supp. 2026), has been an important reference since it was first published in 2004. In 2024, Sylvia helped secure a $90 million settlement with Humana to resolve allegations of overcharging the government by submitting fraudulent bids to CMS for Medicare Part D prescription drug contracts. In 2025 she was recognized by her peers with a Lifetime Achievement Award.  Together with her partners Amy Easton and Jeffrey Dickstein, in 2026 she helped secure a $135 million settlement with AssuredPartners and AP of South Florida to resolve allegations that they were responsible for the submission of fraudulent applications for government-subsidized Affordable Care Act policies.  Also together with Easton and Dickstein in 2026 she helped obtain an $11.5 million settlement with Aetna to resolve allegations that the company submitted to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) invalid patient diagnosis codes that increased the amounts the government pays for Medicare Advantage beneficiaries.
• Stephen Hasegawa represents 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 also obtained a $22.8 million settlement against Linde GmbH and Linde Engineering North America for evading US customs duties.  In 2026, Hasegawa helped secure a $19 million settlement with Royal Canadian Steel, their affiliates, and their president alleging that they misrepresented the country of origin on entry documentation to avoid paying customs duties.
• 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. In 2026, Dickstein had a successful year, helping secure a $135 million settlement with AssuredPartners and AP of South Florida to resolve allegations that they submitted fraudulent applications for government-subsidized Affordable Care Act policies.  In 2025, Dickstein helped secure a $309 million settlement with Alexandra Gehrke and Jeffrey King, known as Arizona’s “Glam-Flam” couple, and their company APEX Medical to resolve civil allegations that they billed the government for expensive amniotic skin grafts that were not medically necessary. 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 several large-scale cases, including a settlement with KBR for $108 million for allegedly defrauding the United States Army in connection with materials used in the Iraq War.  In 2024, Arens helped secure 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.  In 2026, Arens had another successful year, including representing a whistleblower in a case against Complete Health that settled for $14.1 million to resolve allegations that it submitted inaccurate risk adjustment data to increase Medicare payments and a settlement for $19 million with Royal Canadian Steel, their president, and affiliates to resolve customs fraud allegations.
• 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.  In 2026, Easton helped secure a $135 million settlement with AssuredPartners and AP of South Florida to resolve allegations that they submitted fraudulent applications for government-subsidized Affordable Care Act policies. In 2025, Easton assisted in securing a $309 million settlement in a groundbreaking wound care case against Alexandra Gehrke and Jeffrey King, known as Arizona’s “Glam-Flam” couple, and their company, APEX Medical, resolving civil allegations that they billed the government for expensive, unnecessary amniotic skin grafts.
• Matthew Smith has had decades of success representing whistleblowers. Smith, along with his colleagues, 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. In 2026, Smith secured a settlement for $1.45 million against Progressive Oncology and Hematology Center and its owner, Mouhamad Bazzi, MD, for allegedly failing to administer prescribed doses of chemotherapy, even though Medicare and Medicaid were billed for the full prescribed dose. Smith is also essential in the development of potential new whistleblower cases for Phillips & Cohen.
• John Tremblay has been instrumental in securing whistleblower settlements in False Claims Act cases and fraud cases before the SEC and CFTC. He helped represent a whistleblower in a case against Paragon Systems, a large provider of security services, for allegedly obtaining federal contracts set aside for small businesses. The case settled for $53.68 million, which is believed to be the largest recovery in a small business set-aside fraud matter. Working with another partner in the firm, Tremblay also represented two international whistleblower clients who filed a joint submission to the SEC and received a $37 million award. In 2026, Tremblay helped secure a $19 million settlement with Royal Canadian Steel, their affiliates, and their president alleging that they misrepresented the country of origin on entry documentation to avoid paying customs duties on steel sold to US customers.
• 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 2025 and 2026, Phillips & Cohen had exceptional years, helping return over a billion dollars to the US Treasury.  The firm’s notable settlements include a $581 million settlement with Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Affiliates, $135 million settlement with AssuredPartners and AP of South Florida, and a $309 million settlement with Alexandra Gehrke and Jeffrey King, and their company APEX Medical. Phillips & Cohen is the most successful law firm representing whistleblowers, with recoveries from our lawsuits totaling over $13 billion and 26 whistleblower awards under the Dodd-Frank Act, the most of any law firm.

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.