Shriver Center Board Member Cohen Is One of National Law Journal’s Top 10 Litigators of the Year

By Lizzy Ullman

Frederick H. Cohen, member of the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law’s board of directors since 2005, is named one of the National Law Journal’s top ten litigators of the year, according to the June 18, 2007, issue. The journal’s choice recognizes the health care litigation accomplishments of Cohen and his colleague David J. Chizewer of Goldberg Kohn.

Cohen and Chizewer were pro bono cocounsel on the 2004 class action lawsuit, Memisovski v. Maram, which found that Illinois was violating the Medicaid Act by failing to establish a system to deliver health care to all covered children. This decision led to a negotiated settlement offering comprehensive new policies ensuring preventive care to all Illinois children with Medicaid. Cohen and Chizewer brought this case with John Bouman of the Shriver Center, and Stephanie Altman and Thomas Yates of Health & Disability Advocates.

In 2005 Cohen and Chizewer represented a whistleblower in Tyson v. Americorp Group Illinois Inc., a case exposing an Illinois health maintenance organization (HMO) program scam. The HMO defrauded the state Medicaid program by training its employees “to avoid people who were ill and women in their third trimester of pregnancy,” despite the company’s contract “to enroll anyone eligible for Medicaid without regard to medical condition in exchange for a set amount based on the recipient’s age and gender.” After a four-week trial, Cohen and Chizewer won for the United States and the State of Illinois $334 million, “the largest jury award in the history of these statutes.” See www.law.com/nlj.