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A Piece of the Pie

By Stefanie Ellis

It's 5:30 p.m., and like clockwork, they begin to arrive. Some cast off their scarves and coats as if they were metaphorically shedding the memory of the day's work, while others waste no time making a beeline for the tall, shiny bar stools.

All of them - Norm, Cliff, Frasier - gather here nightly to poke fun at one another, share stories and drink impossibly cavernous mugs of beer. And no matter how demanding the world outside, inside it is the kind of place where everybody knows your name - where they are always glad you came. The place, outside of cream pies and the Freedom Trail, many people have come to associate with Boston...that is, until now.

Until Bret Cohen, '93, a self-proclaimed "Midwesterner through and through" whose clean-cut good looks and cheery disposition could've easily landed him a leading role on Aly McBeal, stepped onto the scene. And although his first step was a little bumpy (he arrived with no contacts, no friends and no ability to locate the nearest Starbucks), he was in no way calloused by the journey. Now, an eight-year veteran of the city, his voice is every bit as cheerful, his demeanor a polished mix of charm and professionalism. He is not, in other words, what one might call a cookie cutter Bostonian. There is no accent. No identifiable rage against the dearth of parking spots. No inherent allegiance to the Red Sox.

What has developed in place of those things, however, is something that was perhaps always there - an insatiable curiosity for the law. A desire to branch out from familiar surroundings and brave the cold, cobblestone streets of a city dominated by the Yale and Harvard graduates of the world, a place where it is incredibly challenging to make it big, but not impossible for everyone to know your name. Such a thing requires more than just walking through a door, of course. It requires tenacity and strength of character and the knowledge that if you want to make it in Boston, you have to know which doors to open - and be lucky enough to get invited inside.

1997 was the year Cohen got his invitation. After having worked four years in St. Louis, he and his wife, Kelly, knew they were going to have to start deciding where to plant their stakes. Kelly's family moved to New Hampshire, and she expressed a desire to be close to them, so Bret applied for jobs on the East Coast. He was offered a job practicing labor and employment law at Stoneman, Chandler & Miller LLP in Boston, and the two never looked back. Granted, it wasn't the easiest of transitions.

Not only did he have to move away from his family (dad, Stuart Cohen, is a partner at Husch & Eppenberger in Clayton, Missouri), but he also had to leave a city he was comfortable in and risk it all on a place where, he says, the people "communicate in a different way." Being the outgoing and friendly person he is, Bret initially struggled to find acceptance. "People here don't always act as I do," he admits," so there was a bias against me from the very beginning." He soon tried to mirror the disposition of those he encountered, but, not surprisingly, that strategy soon failed. He eventually decided that Boston was going to have to take him as-is, no substitutions. "I tried to be somebody different and it wasn't working," he says. "I found that once these East coast folks know I'm just being genuine, they love it - sometimes even appreciate it - and warm up."

Still, it took awhile for Cohen to "warm up" to his new life. He started out working full time, saying goodbye to his wife, who would leave for her consulting job in Omaha on Mondays at 5 a.m., and not see her again until midnight on Thursdays. During the week he would study for the bar from 7 to 9 a.m., attend bar review courses fro m 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., then work from 12:30 p.m. until 7:30 p.m., and study from 7:30 to 11:30 p.m. - for two months straight. When he made his way to another firm, Todd and Weld LLP, he was tired. But he was ready to learn, and that's just what he did for the next three years. And when he later moved to Pepe & Hazard LLP, he took what he learned and started up the firm's Labor and Employment Law Group, which grew from just him to six lawyers and a paralegal in eighteen months' time.

And now he calls the prestigious Boston law firm Mintz Levin his home. A partner in the firm's Employment, Labor and Benefits Section, he represents employers in labor and employment litigation, including claims arising under FLSA, Title VII, ADA, ADEA, Massachusetts General Laws chapter 151B, Massachusetts Wage Act, as well as state common law, breach of contract, wrongful termination and defamation claims.

Somewhere in-between all the learning and door-opening (and the raising of his two children - Mackenie and Clayton), Cohen was selected by Massachusetts Weekly as one of the top five up-and-coming lawyers in the state, is ranked as one of Massachusetts' top employment defense attorneys by Chambers USA, was the youngest ever Chair of the Joint Bar Committee for Judicial Appointments and is currently Chair of the ABA's Business Law Section's Subcommittee on Employment Litigation. And in May of 2005, he was featured in a Boston Magazine article on Massachusetts ' rising stars under 40.

Such quick acclaim might've gotten to the heads of other young attorneys, but not to Bret Cohen. Though sharp, super-intelligent and very much "in his game," he uses that mix to become a better lawyer, not a greedy one. And in a profession that can sometimes be brutal, he isn't motivated solely by the bottom line. "Before I became a lawyer, my father gave me great advice: 'Always, always, always act in the client's best interest. You will make less money in the short term, but you'll be able to look yourself in the mirror and have a long, successful career with loyal clients,'" remembers Cohen. And he prides himself on doing just that.

Another mentor, J. Owen Todd of Todd & Weld, told Cohen: "To be a good trial lawyer you have to have an uncanny appreciation for the truth. You have to be able to be uncompromisingly honest with your clients. It may be harsh, but that's what clients appreciate over time. You're being straight with them. They know they can trust you even though you may have to tell them something they don't want to hear." Another thing you have to do is be reliable, says Cohen. For him, that means honoring his commitments, no matter how difficult, or what sacrifice has to be made to do so. "I always keep my commitments," he says. "In life, there aren't many people who fall into that category. People begin to recognize you have that characteristic and they know they can count on you. That has always served me well."

Something else that has obviously served him well has been his choice of a career. His interest in the law came from watching his father practice as a labor lawyer, and his desire to attend law school was always evident. He says he chose Saint Louis University School of Law because of the William C. Wefel Center for Employment Law. He was eager to earn his certificate in Employment Law, and enter a field filled with "very interesting work and the best cocktail conversations." He also says that his chosen area of the law is one impervious to fluctuations in the economy. "Employers are always going to have employment issues," says Cohen.

And most likely, those employers will be calling Bret Cohen - the man who has proven, throughout his twelve-year career, that if you work hard, people really will know your name. Even in a city as big as Boston. Despite his success, he still believes he's got a lot further to go. "I'm barely scratching the surface of experience in this profession," Cohen says. "You have to keep your eyes open to be a lifelong learner, really learn from other people's mistakes or successes. I'm not jealous of someone else's success - I want others to have success. I'm a big pie kind of guy. Somebody else's success just makes the pie larger."