Cohen & Gresser

Cohen & Gresser LLP

No. of offices	4
No. of attorneys	50+
Major practice areas	Corporate; Employment; Intellectual Property & Technology; Litigation and Arbitration; Tax; White Collar Defense;
Company type	Limited Liability Partnership
Website
www.cohengresser.com

Cohen & Gresser LLP is an international law firm with offices in New York City, Paris, Washington D.C, and Seoul. The firm represents clients in complex litigation and corporate transactions throughout the world. Founded in 2002, the firm has grown to nearly seventy lawyers in six practice groups: Corporate; Employment; Intellectual Property & Technology; Litigation and Arbitration; Tax; White Collar Defense.^[1] The firm’s clients include Fortune 500 companies and major financial institutions across a broad spectrum of industries throughout the world, and it has litigated and negotiated against some of the nation’s largest law firms. Among Cohen & Gresser’s clients are Goldman Sachs,^[2] LG Electronics,^[3] Chesapeake Energy,^[4] Hyundai Rotem,^[3] Southwest Airlines,^[5] Bank of America,^[6] and L’Oréal.^[7]

Offices

Cohen & Gresser is headquartered in New York City in midtown.^[8]

On September 22, 2012, Cohen & Gresser became the fourth foreign law firm to be approved by the Korean government to open an office in Seoul.^[9] Cohen & Gresser’s Seoul office is located in the Pine Avenue Building at Jung-Gu Ulji-Ro 100. Cohen & Gresser partner S.C. Sohn leads the firm’s Seoul office, which focuses on international arbitration, cross-border litigation, products liability, intellectual property, and international business transactions (including mergers and acquisitions, private equity, venture capital investments, and joint ventures).

Cohen & Gresser’s French office opened in early 2014. The firm’s Paris office is located on Rue La Boétie, in the 8th arrondissement.^[10] Cohen & Gresser partner Johannes Jonas leads the Paris office and is licensed to practice law in France, Germany, and New York. The office has a particular focus on cross-border transactions and investments, mergers and acquisitions, litigation, tax, and employment law.

Practices

Corporate

Cohen & Gresser assists clients in a wide range of corporate matters, including mergers and acquisitions, private equity and venture capital financing, fund formation, corporate governance, and securities law compliance. The firm’s attorneys represent public companies, early-stage and late-stage private companies, venture capital and private equity funds, hedge funds, and investment banks. The firm also serves as outside general counsel to a number of privately held companies and regularly counsels clients on executive compensation and employment issues.^[11]

Intellectual Property & Technology

Cohen & Gresser represents clients in patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret, and unfair competition matters. The firm’s patent litigators are skilled in computer software and hardware, mobile technology, electronics, medical devices, life sciences, mechanical engineering, consumer products, financial transactions, and business methods. Its IP litigators also represent clients in trademark, copyright, trade secret, and unfair competition cases and advise clients on Internet privacy issues, data security, and technology law. The firm’s IP transactional attorneys represent clients in licensing agreements and agreements to transfer technology, patents, copyrights, trademarks, and other intellectual property assets. They also assist clients in evaluating intellectual property in M&A transactions and in developing business plans, licensing programs, and intellectual property portfolio strategies.^[11]

Litigation and Arbitration

Cohen & Gresser litigation and arbitration group handles major cases in federal and state courts, before government agencies, and in a variety of domestic and international arbitration settings under the AAA, LCIA, ICC, FINRA, and UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules. The firm has substantial experience in antitrust and unfair competition, bankruptcy litigation and counseling, class action defense, commercial litigation, directors and officers litigation, employment, healthcare litigation, partnership disputes, products liability, real estate litigation, and securities law.^[11]

White Collar Defense

The firm's white collar defense group represents corporations and individuals in federal and state regulatory investigations, proceedings before self-regulatory organizations, corporate internal investigations, and white collar criminal cases. Staffed by highly experienced former federal and state prosecutors and defense counsel, this group has represented clients in most of the major investigations of recent years and has defended institutions and senior executives in proceedings involving the United States Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the New York State Attorney General, the NYSE, FINRA, the FSA, and the Federal Reserve.^[11]

Notable Mandates

Larabee v. Governor

On February 23, 2010, Cohen & Gresser won a victory for New York State Court judges in the New York Court of Appeals. Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman heralded the win as a “groundbreaking legal precedent,” stating that “[t]his is the first decision by a state court of last resort to find a violation of the separation of powers doctrine based on a Legislature’s failure to address, on the merits, the issue of judicial compensation.”^[12] The Legislature and Governor responded by enacting legislation requiring judicial compensation to be set by a long-sought independent commission.^[13] Cohen & Gresser is continuing with the case in order to obtain back pay awards to compensate New York state judges for the state’s failure to grant any pay raises for twelve years.^[14]

United States of America and Vulcan Society, Inc. v. City of New York

In November 2011, partner and firm co-founder Mark S. Cohen was appointed by Judge Nicholas Garaufis of the District Court for the Eastern District of New York as court-appointed monitor to oversee the hiring of minorities in the Fire Department of New York.^[15] Judge Garaufis selected Cohen as independent monitor in response to court findings that current FDNY hiring practices placed blacks and Hispanics at a severe disadvantage to whites. The appointment came after four years of litigation brought by the U.S. Justice Department, and later, the Vulcan Society, a fraternal organization of black firefighters,^[16] against New York City and the FDNY. As monitor, Cohen has a primary responsibility to ensure the implementation of new policies in compliance with the Court’s remedial order, auditing these policies, and making recommendations to resolve disputes among interested parties involved in the implementation of the order when appropriate.^[17]

Moulton v. LG Electronics USA Inc. et al.

On August 21, 2012, Cohen & Gresser achieved the dismissal with prejudice of a purported nationwide class action filed against its clients, LG Electronics, Inc. and LG Electronics USA. Plaintiffs had asserted claims for breach of warranty, fraud, and violation of state consumer protection laws in connection with certain LG televisions. Judge Jose L. Linares of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey rejected all of plaintiffs' claims and dismissed the complaint in its entirety, agreeing with Cohen & Gresser's position that the alleged failure of the televisions occurred after the warranty period expired and that the fraud claims were inadequate because the plaintiffs "fail[ed] to plead with specificity any facts that would demonstrate LG's knowledge and concealment of the alleged defects."^[18]

LDH Energy Transaction

Cohen & Gresser advised members of senior management of Louis Dreyfus Highbridge Energy, LLC (LDH Energy), a joint venture between Louis Dreyfus and a hedge fund owned by JPMorgan Chase, in connection with the acquisition of LDH Energy by a consortium of investors, including Paul Tudor Jones, Glenn Dubin, and Timothy Barakett.^[19]

Rankings & Awards

The firm has been recognized in Chambers USA,^[11] Legal 500,^[20] Managing IP,^[21] U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Law Firms,”^[22] Décideurs,^[23] and Benchmark Litigation.^[24] They have also been named to The National Law Journal’s “Midsize Hot List”^[25] and the BTI Client Service A-Team,^[26] and nearly half of their U.S.-based attorneys have been recognized by Super Lawyers.^[27]

Attorneys

Some of the firm's attorney's have served as former prosecutors, including former Assistant U.S. Attorneys for the Southern^[1] and Eastern^[15] Districts of New York, and as in-house counsel to major corporations. Some also serve as executive members of New York Lawyers for the Public Interest,^[28] the Citizens Budget Commission,^[29] New York Council of Defense Lawyers,^[30] and the American Bar Association and as adjunct professors in nearby law schools.^[31]

Diversity

Cohen & Gresser is a signatory to the New York City Bar Association Statement of Diversity Principles,^[32] which affirms the commitment of its signatory law firms and corporate law departments to adopt specific diversity goals and practices, such as forming diversity committees, holding trainings, and developing other practices designed to enhance diversity.^[33]

Publications

Cohen & Gresser’s client newsletters^[34] alert clients to changes in the evolving legal landscape while also providing innovative insights for its clientele and community. The Firm also regularly submits by-lined articles about current legal issues, new case law, and law firm management to the New York Law Journal^[35] and other publications.

References