OUR STORY
Cohen Cunningham DeRose Higgins Lyon was launched as a firm based around one central question: can law firms really be “different” or “new” nowadays? After almost a year developing the firm that would become Cohen Cunningham, the answer to that primary question was a resounding “yes.” The legal industry has a reputation for being stagnant and resistant to change, with old school ways of doing things being the norm versus the exception. What would a firm look like if a group of founding attorneys and administrators got together and shared collective experiences at a dozen large multistate or international law firms? What could this group add to the legal industry, based upon the many lessons learned at these other firms? That single question formulated the basis for this firm’s creation. And, with that, our firm began to take shape.
Twenty-five years ago, RJ Cohen was a young partner in one of the oldest and largest law firms in Buffalo. In 2001 he left that firm with a few of his fellow partners and started their own firm, which was named after his two primary professional mentors – each a generation older than him. For the next 20 or so years he served as the Managing Partner and chief strategic architect of that firm, which grew into one of the nation’s largest law firms. He also recruited more than 700 lawyers to that firm throughout his tenure.
In 2021, a year into the global crisis of a pandemic the likes of which had not been seen for 100 years, he received an offer to join his long-time buddies in another growing multi-state firm – one that was based in the Southeast but which had begun to expand well beyond its geographic origins. For a wide variety of reasons, he considered it an offer he couldn’t refuse. RJ’s intention was to move to Charlotte with his wife and their six youngest kids. Unfortunately, logistics and life prevented that from happening, and in February of 2024, RJ retired from that firm.
JEFF CUNNINGHAM, JOHN DEROSE, JOSH HIGGINS AND CHRIS LYON
John (in 2016), Josh (in 2016), Jeff (in 2019) and Chris (in 2019) were among the hundreds of people RJ sought to recruit to the firm he ran for nearly two decades. He was successful in recruiting only three of the four, but he knew even back then that each of them weren’t just exceptional; they each represented something rare and pivotal. Little did RJ know back then that it would be a prelude to something even more momentous.
Sometime in 2022, RJ was in Philadelphia and met up for breakfast with John – who by that time had left the firm to which RJ had originally recruited him. RJ asked whether John might be interested in talking about coming and joining RJ at his new firm. And so began the formal recruiting process. Again. For reasons beyond their control, those discussions ultimately fell through.
In October or November of 2023, Jeff reached out to RJ to let him know he was thinking about leaving the firm to which RJ originally recruited him, and they met for coffee. And so began the formal recruiting process. Again. In December of 2023 Jeff joined the firm that RJ was at.
In December of 2023, RJ and Chris happened to find themselves at the same conference in Las Vegas. They hadn’t seen each other – or, frankly, spoken – since before RJ left the firm to which he had recruited Chris, and they decided to grab breakfast and catch up. Breakfast went so well that they decided to get together again for lunch that same day. Over lunch, RJ asked Chris if he wanted to talk about joining RJ at the firm to which he had gone. Chris expressed interest in learning more about the opportunity, and so began the formal recruiting process. Again.
Shortly after that – in January of 2024 -- RJ retired from that firm. He called Chris to update him – knowing that it might affect Chris’s decision about joining the firm, which of course it did. Chris and RJ talked about their disappointment in not being able to work together again and, over time, their discussions morphed into finding a way to work together again.
Right around that same time, Josh, who RJ tried but failed to recruit eight years prior, reached out to RJ essentially out of the blue. RJ considered it serendipity, and not long after that, RJ, Chris, Jeff, John and Josh found themselves musing about creating a new law firm in their fully aligned vision. All five of them spent the vast majority of their careers at large multistate, national, or international firms. They spent nearly a full year comparing their respective experiences – for better and worse – at all of those large firms. Then, using all of their collective experiences as lessons learned, developed the strategic vision, integral tenets, and foundational plan for the type of law firm they wanted to build – one built on a deep understanding of both the client experience and our internal community -- neither of which should ever suffer from the typical law firm dysfunction each of our founders experienced at those other firms.
And in January of 2025 they launched Cohen Cunningham DeRose Higgins Lyon LLP.
RJ recruited Sean out of a very large firm nearly 20 years ago when Sean was a young associate with a handful of years of experience. They then spent more than a decade together at the same firm – most of which as partners and leaders -- before both ultimately left that firm within a few years of each other. When the founders of this firm put together a wish list of people they wanted to add to the ownership group, Sean was at the top of the list. On the day of the firm’s launch, John reached out to Sean and within four days Sean was a member of our ownership group and at his first firm meeting. Sean co-chairs our Transportation practice across our footprint.
Mike was also on our wish list from the start. Mike had worked with Jeff at a prior firm and Jeff had enormous professional respect and personal regard for Mike. It didn’t take long for the other founders to understand why and share in that sentiment. Mike joined the ownership group only months after our launch and immediately became a core leader of both our Construction and Transportation practices.
Kelly was also on our wish list from the very beginning. Some years ago, RJ had helped recruit Kelly, a construction lawyer with two decades of experience, to his prior firm. In September of 2025, RJ reached out to Kelly to see if she would be interested in chatting, and within what seems like no time flat, Kelly joined our ownership group. An Editor-in-Chief of the New York Bar Association’s treatise on construction worksite injury litigation, Kelly chairs our Construction practice throughout our footprint.
Mike joined us as an owner in July of 2026 and heads our Tampa office, which opened around Mike and his team. He is a Board Certified Trial Lawyer with more than two decades of experience handling a wide variety of exposures, and chairs our Admiralty and Maritime practice across the footprint of our firm.
In our first 18 months we expanded from a founding group of five lawyers and three executive administrators to a team of nearly 20 lawyers and more than a dozen paralegals, administrative and support staff, and we expect steady and continuing growth at all levels of the firm going forward.
OUR “FOUNDING” ADMINISTRATORS
We have five founders and have grown to nine owners, but we consider ourselves to be much more inclusive than that. As leaders, we strongly believe that our core administrators are every bit, if not more, important than the core partners. Jennifer Majewski (as our Chief Operating Officer), Amanda Spencer (as our Chief Human Resources and Culture Officer) and Anna Gilman (as our Chief Business Relations and Culture Officer) were all on our wish list from the very beginning. Fortune smiled upon us when each of the three became available to us, and we are forever grateful to have each of them as part of our nuclear leadership group.
We mean what we say. Our firm was created intentionally to consider positive and negative experiences at our prior firms, in order to create a firm from inception that utilized our collective knowledge to create something unique. Our bedrock principles in terms of client service, internal harmony, and strategic vision were established as foundational aspects of our firm for both present and future.
Our goal is not to “disrupt the legal industry,” because what does that actually mean? Rather, our goal has always been to use our many lessons learned to create something that enhances the client and internal experience in novel ways – to create a firm we are proud of.
We believe we did.
Cohen Cunningham DeRose Higgins Lyon LLP
Inspired Advocacy.
