User:RayKHessel/sandbox

ORIGINAL

Richard J. Cohen is an American lawyer and the Managing Partner of the multinational law firm Goldberg Segalla, a position he has held since the founding of the firm in 2001. He also serves as Co-Chair of the firm’s Global Insurance Services Practice Group, which is one of the largest of its kind among U.S.-based law firms, and Chair of its Professional Liability Practice Group.

Education
Cohen earned his bachelor of science degree, with distinction, from the State University of New York at Buffalo School of Management and his juris doctor, cum laude, from the State University of New York at Buffalo Law School.

Career
After completing his law degree in 1989, Cohen practiced at WolfBlock in Philadelphia and then Saperston & Day in Buffalo, New York. Both of those formerly large firms no longer exist. Cohen and several partners broke away from Saperston & Day to establish Goldberg Segalla in 2001.

He has overseen its growth from this group of attorneys in Buffalo into one of the largest law firms headquartered in the United States by attorney headcount; in 2016, it was ranked 178th largest, as measured by the National Law Journal.

In 2013, Cohen was inducted as a Fellow of the American College of Coverage and Extracontractual Counsel, a national organization dedicated to improving the quality of the practice of insurance law.

Cohen possesses an AV Preeminent peer-review rating from Martindale-Hubbell. He is listed in the Best Lawyers in America for Insurance Law and has been named to Thomson Reuters’ Super Lawyers each year since 2007. He also consistently earns placement in Buffalo Business First’s Legal Elite (formerly Who’s Who in Law).

Cohen, his wife Tamara, and their nine kids live in Western New York. Tamara Bigford Cohen is a former social media consultant, former President of the Western New York Paralegal Association, and former Technology Coordinator for the National Federation of Paralegal Associations.

Education
Cohen earned his bachelor of science degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo School of Management and his juris doctor from the State University of New York at Buffalo Law School.

Career and Growth of Law Firm
After completing his law degree in 1989, Cohen practiced at WolfBlock in Philadelphia and then Saperston & Day in Buffalo, New York. Both of those formerly large law firms no longer exist. A lack of cohesiveness was a significant factor in the downfall of both firms, he told the National Law Journal. "They were broken," he said of his previous firms. Cohen and several partners broke away from Saperston & Day to establish Goldberg Segalla in 2001.

In a 2010 interview with the National Law Journal, when the firm ranked on that publication’s Midsize Hot List, Cohen described the vision he and his partners had for Goldberg Segalla as follows: “The seven of us who founded the firm, we came from an environment where there was a tremendous lack of teamwork. There were exceptional lawyers, but they weren’t always working on the same team ... and they were concerned more about themselves than the success of the team. That’s something we tried to avoid when we put this firm together. We wanted to focus on team first and everyone rowing their oars in the same direction.”

Cohen’s vision and the firm’s focus on teamwork drive Goldberg Segalla’s hiring strategy and "quick yet methodical" growth, he and others have noted. Law360 pointed out, “Goldberg Segalla’s organic growth strategy consists of Cohen hand-picking every single lawyer in the firm.” Cohen told the Buffalo Law Journal in 2014, "We don’t tolerate anyone who puts their own interest above the firm as a whole," and in 2016, "I will admit that we attained that vision on an accelerated timetable. That was largely because we created a different business and service model, a different core-value system and different culture for a law firm. It resonated deeply with our client community and they gave us opportunities to accelerate our growth."

In 2016, when Goldberg Segalla ranked 178th largest in the United States by attorney headcount, as measured by the National Law Journal, it earned recognition for its workplace culture on the national Fortune 100 Best Medium Workplaces list. It has earned similar workplace ratings regionally in New York and Western New York  , Illinois , Pennsylvania , and New Jersey.