Mr. Cohen has 42 years of experience as a lawyer. Mr. Cohen grew up in Colorado and earned at
B.A. in Economics at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington. He earned his law degree at the University of
Colorado School of Law in Boulder in 1983.
He earned a Masters in Law
(LL.M.) degree in Agricultural and Food Law from the University of Arkansas
School of Law, where he also taught as an adjunct faculty member. He was selected as a Super Lawyer in 2021-2025.
Mr. Cohen's diverse legal career includes service as an Air Force
Judge Advocate, service as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney, private practice
in Nebraska, seven years as a prosecutor, service on the Executive Board of the
Colorado Municipal League, several years as a Municipal Judge for Boulder, nine
years as Municipal Judge for Lochbuie, private practice in Colorado, and
service for six years on the Board of Editors of The Colorado Lawyer
(Chairperson for 2012-2013). He served
as a Legal Advisor to TermScout, a Denver-based legal-tech company that helps
people and businesses understand the contracts and privacy policies they agree
to so they can make better decisions about what terms to accept. A frequent speaker, Mr. Cohen
promotes the use of plain
English over Legalese. His article,
How to Draft a Bad Contract, has been republished many times and is used in several law schools.
An accomplished writer, Mr. Cohen authored six articles for
the Am.Jur. Proof of Facts series, including one on piercing the corporate
veil. Mr. Cohen's first mystery,
The
Fractal Murders
, was published by Time/Warner and became a Book Sense® Top Ten
Mystery selection. His second mystery,
Bluetick Revenge, won praise from authors that included Kinky Friedman. He won
second place in the 2004 SEAK National Legal Fiction Writing Competition. One of his interests is the use of Plain
English rather than legal jargon. He
studied logic and philosophy at the graduate level and is a member of the
Institute for General Semantics. He writes a regular column for the Nederland
Mountain-Ear.
Mr. Cohen's skill in translating documents from
"Legalese" into plain English is well known, and other Colorado
lawyers have hired him to review and edit briefs and other legal
documents. Mr. Cohen speaks frequently on
contract drafting, plain English, real estate law and litigation and piercing the corporate veil. He gave a presentation to the Colorado Bar Association on issues unique to mountain real estate and in 2022 was invited to speak on the law of easements at the Rocky Mountain Surveyors Summit. He has presented CLE classes on contract drafting and piercing the corporate veil for Strafford Publications, Rossdale CLE, MESA CLE, and LawPracticeCLE, among others.
Mr. Cohen earned a black belt in Shudokan karate and taught karate. In 2022, Colorado Governor Jared Polis appointed him to serve on the Colorado Combative Sports Commission, formerly the Colorado Boxing Commission. He served on the Commission for roughly three years.
