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Rodgin “Rodge” Cohen

Corporate Lawyer

Henry Rodgin ("Rodge") Cohen is a prominent corporate lawyer whose practice focuses on commercial banking and financial institutions. Following graduation from Harvard College (1965), Harvard Law School (1968) and two years in the U.S. Army, Cohen joined Sullivan & Cromwell LLP in 1970. Cohen served as Sullivan & Cromwell's Chairman from 2000 through the end of 2009.The Financial Times has called Cohen “one of the biggest players on Wall Street.” The Wall Street Journal refers to Cohen as “arguably the country’s leading banking lawyer.”He has been called "the trauma surgeon of Wall Street.”

Cohen participated in the bank negotiations in January 1981 that resulted in the freeing of the Americans held during the Iran hostage crisis. Cohen has also been a key player in the resolution of most major bank failures in recent decades, including Lehman Brothers.

“The primary focus of Mr. Cohen’s practice is 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... During the past several years, Mr. Cohen has devoted substantial time to regulatory, law enforcement and internal investigations of financial institutions. Publicly disclosed matters involve Lloyds, ABN AMRO, Bank of Montreal, Banco Popular, Bank of New York, Fifth Third, First Horizon, IDB, KeyCorp, Mellon, Mitsubishi UFG, Royal Bank of Canada, Standard Chartered, Sun Trust, Wachovia and Wells Fargo.”