Contact:
Phone: 717-234-9730
Fax: 717-234-9734
Email: walter.cohen@obermayer.com
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Office:
Harrisburg, PA
Suite 400
200 Locust Street
Harrisburg, PA 17101-1508

Practice Areas:
White Collar Crime
Health Care
Litigation

Education:
Harvard College
Univ. of Pennsylvania School of Law

Professional/Civic Activities:

Former Acting Attorney General of Pennsylvania
Former First Deputy Attorney General of Pennsylvania
Adjunct Professor of Law, Widener University School of Law
Past-President, Jewish Home of Greater Harrisburg
Member, Harrisburg Police Pension Board
Member, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, and American Bar Associations

Walter W. Cohen is the partner-in-charge of the Harrisburg office of Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel LLP. He is a member of the Litigation Department and the Health Care Practice Group, practicing in the areas of health care, regulatory law, criminal defense, public utility, general litigation and governmental affairs.

Mr. Cohen received his Bachelor of Arts degree, cum laude, from Harvard College, Cambridge, MA. He was awarded his Juris Doctor from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law, Philadelphia, where he was winner of the Keedy Cup Moot Court Competition.

Immediately prior to joining Obermayer in 1996, Mr. Cohen was the Acting Attorney General of Pennsylvania and, from 1989 through 1994, the First Deputy Attorney General. As First Deputy, he gave overall supervision to all significant civil and criminal litigation, while also directly handling appeals in state and federal courts, including arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Mr. Cohen’s earlier service in Pennsylvania state government included four years (1983-87) as Secretary of Public Welfare and four years (1979-83) as State Consumer Advocate. As Secretary, he managed the largest single state agency in the country, including administration of the Medicaid program and oversight of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Long-Term Care.

He began his legal career in the Philadelphia District Attorneys Office, serving as a Chief Assistant District Attorney from 1969 – 1974. 

A major portion of Mr. Cohen’s practice currently involves the representation of several large and multi-national corporations on regulatory issues before state Attorneys General throughout the country. He also is experienced in handling medical reimbursement and licensing issues for doctors and health care facilities. He has appeared in all 3 federal district courts in Pennsylvania as well as the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.   

Among the complex litigation matters in which he has been involved are In re Vitamins Antitrust Litigation, MDL No. 1285 (D.DC), where he represented a multinational Fortune 500 pharmaceutical company plaintiff, and In re Pharmaceutical Industry Average Wholesale Price Litigation ,MDL No. 1456 (D.Mass) where he has represented two major pharmaceutical companies. He currently is local liaison counsel for the plaintiffs in In Re Chocolate Confectionary Antitrust Litigation, MDL No. 1935 (D. MDPA).

Mr. Cohen has been an adjunct professor of law at Widener University School of Law, teaching Pennsylvania civil practice. He previously taught criminal law at Temple University and lectured on criminal justice at the University of Pennsylvania School of Law, Bryn Mawr School of Social Work and the National Jail Center in Boulder, CO. He is past President and currently Treasurer of the Board of Directors of the Jewish Home of Greater Harrisburg.