Cohen, Mary Louise

Mary Louise Cohen, a founding partner of Phillips & Cohen LLP, has represented whistleblowers for more than 20 years in many successful "qui tam" (whistleblower) lawsuits brought under the False Claims Act. She was recognized as one of the "500 Leading Lawyers in America" for 2008 by Lawdragon, a national legal publication, which called her the "queen of qui tam."

Among Ms. Cohen's more notable whistleblower cases was a qui tam lawsuit that was part of an $875 million settlement by TAP Pharmaceutical Products Inc. -- one of the largest Medicare fraud settlements ever. She also was part of the legal team that successfully pursued two major landmark cases against HCA, the nation's largest for-profit healthcare provider, for Medicare "cost report" fraud that were part of an $881 million settlement.

Most recently, Ms. Cohen was the lead attorney in a qui tam lawsuit against Quest Diagnostics that settled for $302 million. It was one of the largest recoveries ever in a case involving a medical device.

Ms. Cohen represented the whistleblower in a qui tam case that launched the federal government's LabScam investigation into billing practices of medical testing labs. That case and others brought by Phillips & Cohen were the basis of a book published by Atlantic Monthly Press called Giantkillers: The Team and the Law that Help Whistle-blowers Recover America's Stolen Billions.

A series of Medicare billing fraud cases filed on behalf of whistleblowers by Ms. Cohen and her firm against hospital and independent laboratories returned more than $200 million to the Treasury. Ms. Cohen also represented two emergency room doctors in a separate successful qui tam case against HCA, which paid $95 million to settle allegations of Medicare billing fraud involving medical lab tests. Recently she was lead attorney in a qui tam lawsuit that a unit of Medtronic Inc. paid $75 million to settle.

Ms. Cohen has brought qui tam lawsuits on behalf of whistleblowers against General Services Administration contractors and defense contractors. She represented a whistleblower in a defense contracting case against General Electric, which G.E. paid the federal government $59.5 million to settle.

Ms. Cohen frequently speaks as a panelist at conferences on the False Claims Act and healthcare fraud. She has co-authored several articles on qui tam lawsuits and whistleblowing.

Ms. Cohen graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1977 where she was a member of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau. From 1977 to 1981, she was an associate in private practice in Atlanta, Georgia and Washington D.C.

Before specializing in representing whistleblowers, Ms. Cohen spent many years in public service positions. She served as counsel and chief counsel to the Subcommittee on Juvenile Justice of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee from 1981 to 1984. The following two years, she served as Legislative Director for a major public interest group in Washington, DC. From 1986 to 1988, she served as counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Antitrust, Monopolies and Business Rights.

Ms. Cohen is bar qualified in Washington, DC.