Background and Training

Mr. Cohen is an attorney admitted to practice in New York State since 1984 and has practice concentrating in the mediation and facilitation of disputes since 1991, resolving issues related to divorce, separation, family, commercial, organizational, workplace, labor, ADA (Americans With Disabilities Act) and Native American issues.

In addition to his practice, he has contributed to the development of the field and has served on the Board of Directors of the Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR) (www.acrnet.org), the largest mediation organization in the United States, from 2009 – 2015.

His various assignments included acting as Chairman of the ACR Ethics Committee, which is charged with the creation and promotion of best ethical practices for mediators and other alternative dispute resolution professionals. He continues as the current Co-Chair of the ACR Ethics Committee and the ACR Grievance Committee. In addition, he has served on the ACR Certification Task Force, a committee charged with creating standards for the certification of mediators who are members of this organization. Mr. Cohen has also served on as the Co-Chair of the ACR Legal Committee, as a member of the ACR Insurance Committee and as a member of the ACR Grievance Committee, where he co-authored grievance and review standards for complaints made against dispute resolution professionals who are members of the organization.

Mr. Cohen has earned the designation of “Advanced Practitioner” from this organization, and as a result has been admitted to the ACR “Academy of Family Mediators”, an honorarium for those mediators who have received advanced training in the field of mediation and conflict resolution.

This designation requires that he engage in bi-annual continuing mediation training in order to maintain his status. Since the inception of his mediation practice, Mr. Cohen has accumulated over 1,000 hours of specific mediation conflict resolution, conflict coaching and facilitation training from many of the finest mediation training programs and individual trainers in both the United States and Canada, including multiple trainings with The Harvard Program on Negotiation at the Harvard Law School and The Cornell ILR School.

At present, in addition to his private practice, he currently mediates workplace and organizational disputes for the United States Department of Interior and labor disputes for the New York State Public Employee Relations Board (PERB). He is also an approved mediator for the Key Bridge Foundation, an organization providing mediation regarding issues associated with the Americans With Disabilities Act.

Mr. Cohen has also worked as a contract mediator for the United States Equal Opportunity Employment Commission regarding issues of employment discrimination and he has mediated both commercial conflicts and workplace disputes for various organizations, including the Social Security Administration.

Mr. Cohen is also the President of the Collaborative Global Initiative, Inc., (CGI), an international network of mediators, facilitators and systems design professionals that provide assessment, training, facilitation, mediation and process design services to help multiple stakeholders work together to achieve common goals.

Mr. Cohen is the cofounder and, since 1990, a co-presenter of the acclaimed “Kids First After Divorce” Program, a New York State certified parent education program for adults with children who are experiencing divorce or separation and who seek to learn the effects of divorce and separation. Participants in this program learn not only the effects of separation and divorce on both children and their parents, but also about the court system and alternatives to litigation.

Mr. Cohen is an “Attorney for the Child, a trained children’s advocate, certified by the Appellate Division of the Third Department of the New York State Judiciary and has taught continuing legal education courses to legal advocates for children throughout the New York State Third Judicial Department.

Mr. Cohen has taught numerous continuing legal education courses to his peers on subjects related to divorce, family law, mediation, and the ethics of mediation.
These courses have been sponsored by such organizations as the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Third Department, and the Albany County Bar Association.

In addition, he has guest-lectured on the topic of mediation as a method of dispute resolution to numerous organizations and schools, including Albany Law School and the Association for Conflict Resolution National Conference, where he lectured on the topics related to commercial and business mediation.

He is a regular guest lecturer at the Syracuse University School of Human Ecology regarding the Ethics and Standards of Practice for Mediators.

Mr. Cohen is also a founding member of Mediators Beyond Borders, a humanitarian organization that promotes the peaceful resolution of conflict worldwide.