H. Rodgin Cohen
Chairman
Sullivan & Cromwell LLP
H. Rodgin Cohen has been a partner at Sullivan & Cromwell (S&C) since 1977 and its chairman since 2000. Cohen and S&C are at the vanguard of critical issues and developments affecting financial institutions, and S&C has remained the chosen firm of leading global financial institutions seeking non-traditional investments, sales and restructuring arrangements in connection with the global credit crisis.
Cohen’s practice focuses on acquisition, corporate governance, regulatory and securities law matters for major U.S. and non-U.S. banking and other financial institutions and their trade associations. He provides corporate governance advice to a large number of financial and non-financial institutions, both regular clients and as special assignments. In addition, he has advised a number of major foreign banks in connection with the establishment of offices in the U.S., including China Merchants Bank Co., Ltd.
In the securities area, Cohen worked on the first public offering in the United States by a non-U.S. bank (Barclays) and on a number of other offerings in the United States by non-U.S. banks. He has also participated in the resolution of most major bank failures, including Washington Mutual, Continental, First City, Southeast, Franklin National and Bank of New England and, at the recommendation of the Federal Reserve, the Ohio thrift crisis.
“...Wall Street’s go-to lawyer during the most important months for the American banking industry since the Great Depression.”
In early 2009, Cohen was honored with the first-ever Leadership Achievement Award at the Global Major Markets M&A Atlas Awards, which recognized his accomplishment in leading the representation of more than a dozen major global clients in transactions that continue to reshape the financial services industry. He also was named Best Lawyers’ 2009 New York Banking Lawyer of the Year by Best Lawyers in America. In its April 2009 edition, The American Lawyer ranked Cohen number one among its 25 “Dealmakers of the Year,” noting that “he was Wall Street’s go-to lawyer during the most important months for the American banking industry since the Great Depression.”
Cohen is a trustee of New York Presbyterian Hospital, the Hackley School, Deerfield Academy, Hampton University and the Economic Club of New York. He is a member of the advisory boards of Wall Street Rising, United Way of Westchester-Putnam and the University of Charleston.
Cohen earned an A.B. in 1965 and an LL.B. in 1968 from Harvard University. He also holds an honorary LL.B. from University of Charleston. He is a frequent speaker on banking law matters and the author of numerous articles on issues in commercial banking.
