Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, a multidisciplinary, integrated professional services firm, announced today the advancement of 12 professionals, effective Jan. 1, 2025—one consultant to senior managing director, three attorneys to equity partnership, one attorney to partnership, three consultants to managing director and four attorneys to counsel.
“Our newly elevated colleagues reflect the core tenets of collaboration, innovation and excellence that are essential to Manatt’s success as a professional services firm built for the future,” said Manatt CEO and Managing Partner Donna Wilson. “As we continue to expand our integrated legal and consulting platform, we are exceedingly proud of this next group of future leaders who set the standard each day for what it means to be a true business partner to our clients as they capitalize on opportunities and navigate challenges in today’s marketplace.”
The following professional has been elected as senior managing director of the Firm:
- Jared Augenstein – Senior Managing Director / Manatt Health / New York
With deep experience in the digital health space, Augenstein provides strategic business advice, policy design and analysis as well as project management to private- and public-sector clients on health technology, telehealth, artificial and augmented intelligence, care model design and transformation, federal and state health policy trends, and provider markets. He received his M.P.H. in Health Policy and Management from Yale University.
The following professionals have been elected equity partners of the Firm:
- Blair Cantfil – Partner / Manatt Health / Washington, D.C.
A creative problem solver and true business partner to her clients, Cantfil helps clients develop strategies to navigate emerging health care policy and enforcement trends, assisting them in matters related to federal health care program access and reimbursement, fraud and abuse, compliance, and internal and governmental investigations. She received her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center.
- Kevin Dwight – Partner / Litigation / Silicon Valley
A member of the Civil Trial and Appellate practice, Dwight represents clients in complex commercial litigation and arbitration matters in venues nationwide. He has extensive trial and litigation experience in a broad range of industries, including trusts and estates, real estate, franchising, employment, and financial services. Dwight received his J.D. from the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco.
- Sigrid Waggener – Partner / Land Use / San Francisco
Waggener has deep experience with the California Environmental Quality Act and land use permitting challenges, representing clients on energy development, infrastructure development, and large-scale commercial development and redevelopment. She also regularly handles related real estate matters and a wide variety of litigation matters arising from the land use development process. She received her J.D. from the University of California, Davis School of Law.
The following professional has been elected partner of the Firm:
- Matthew Bruno – Partner / Litigation / New York
Representing clients throughout all stages of litigation, Bruno is an experienced litigator whose practice focuses on antitrust, complex commercial litigation, white collar investigations, and business disputes. His clients range from Fortune 500 companies to entrepreneurs and start-ups, operating in an array of industries, including telecommunications and technology, entertainment, retail, health care, and life sciences. He received his J.D. from Fordham University School of Law.
The following professionals have been elected managing director of the Firm:
- Avi Herring – Managing Director / Manatt Health / Chicago
Herring provides policy analysis, financial modeling and project oversight to a wide array of clients on innovative Medicaid payment and nonfederal share financing strategies within the parameters of a changing federal regulatory environment, including evolving payment parameters in Medicaid managed care. He received his M.P.A. from New York University’s Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service.
- Mindy Lipson – Managing Director / Manatt Health / New York
Lipson provides policy analysis and development, research, analytics, project management, and strategic business services to a variety of health care stakeholders on a broad range of issues, including Medicaid waivers, Medicaid managed care, behavioral health delivery system reform, care management, and home- and community-based services. She received her M.P.H. in Health Policy and Management from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.
- Tracy Raleigh – Managing Director / Manatt Health / Albany
An accomplished health care leader with 30 years of executive experience in the public and private sectors, Raleigh advises providers and other health care organizations on strategic planning, performance improvement, capital financing and financial restructuring. She received her M.B.A. in Health Care/Health Care Administration/Management from Union Graduate College.
The following professionals were promoted to counsel:
- Sandra Bignone – Counsel / Entertainment / Los Angeles
With deep experience structuring agreements for television and film projects with major industry distributors, Bignone has served as general counsel for high-profile clients and regularly represents influencers in a variety of business deals and partnership opportunities. She received her J.D. from Loyola Law School.
- Nathaniel Cohen – Counsel / Health Care Litigation / San Francisco
Cohen regularly represents some of the country’s largest managed care organizations and health insurers in complex litigation matters in federal and state courts. His practice includes a particular focus on class actions, insurance bad faith litigation, ERISA litigation and litigation implicating federal and state mental health parity statutes. He received his J.D. from The George Washington University Law School.
- Misa Eiritz – Counsel / Litigation / Los Angeles
A member of the investigations and white-collar defense and litigation practices, Eiritz’s practice focuses on representing corporate entities during criminal investigations and complex civil litigation. She has experience defending False Claims Act actions, consumer class actions and complex contract disputes for a variety of clients in state and federal courts. She received her J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law.
- Bernard Mantel – Counsel / Entertainment / New York
With a focus on music and entertainment transactional matters, Mantel advises clients on the negotiation and drafting of recording, publishing, touring, festival, distribution, licensing, producer, mixer, sponsorship and endorsement agreements, as well as complex intellectual property and copyright issues. He received his J.D. from the University of Miami School of Law.