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Adam Cohn

Partner

Adam took a circuitous path to the law, having spent eighteen years as a chef and restaurateur, in cities around the world, before returning to New York City, ostensibly to open another restaurant.  Instead, late one night on the Bowery, he had a sudden epiphany to enter law school. For four years thereafter, he cooked downtown at night and studied law during the day.

Once he passed the Bar, Adam set out to become a general corporate and transactions lawyer, being already well-experienced in negotiating deals, raising capital and generally thinking like an entrepreneur. However, his peer group remained chefs and restaurateurs, who sought him out to get his help in making the transition from employee to entrepreneur, or from an independent restaurateur to a multi-unit operator. Thus, Adam has spent seventeen years building a law practice as a corporate and transactional generalist with a particular emphasis in representing the hospitality industry in those mission-critical aspects of restaurant, bar and hotel development: corporate formation, real estate, capital markets, intellectual property, employment law and liquor licenses.

In addition to his transactional hospitality practice, Adam has also developed a substantive practice representing international clients doing business in a variety of countries and industries, such as Italian software companies, Tanzanian micro-lenders, Rwandan game lodges and a Haitian rum brand, to name a few. Finally, Adam has a breadth of experience representing clients in commercial litigation and arbitration, in New York Supreme Court, Appellate Court and various arbitration venues.

Adam is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, the Culinary Institute of America (Hyde Park) and Hofstra University School of Law. He is admitted to practice in New York and the Southern District of New York. He is also a New York State-certified, albeit non-practicing, EMT.

Adam is a trustee of the non-profit organization Carmans River Maritime Center, in Brookhaven, New York, and a founding member and pro bono general counsel of the non-profit Great South Bay Finnish Debate Society, an entity devoted to converting a Chris-Craft motor cruiser into a floating, wood-burning, Finnish sauna and launching it into quasi-public use.

Adam lives with his wife and two sons in Alphabet City and Bellport, New York. In Bellport, Adam and family sail, build and repair an armada of dilapidated contemporary and classic wooden and fiberglass boats. He still invests in restaurants.