S&C Senior Chair Rodge Cohen received the 2025 Whitney North Seymour Award at the Federal Bar Council’s Winter Bench and Bar Conference.
The award, established in 1987, recognizes Mr. Cohen’s outstanding public service by a private practitioner. The award is named in honor of the late Whitney North Seymour, a leading member of the bar who served as president of the American Bar Association, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, the Legal Aid Society, and in countless other major positions of leadership at the bar and in the community.
Mr. Cohen, who served as S&C’s Chair from 2000-2009, has played a singular role in the market events that have changed the face of the financial services industry and economy, for which he has been recognized by organizations such as The American Lawyer, The Clearing House and the Financial Times.
Mr. Cohen is or has been a Trustee of New York Presbyterian Hospital, Rockefeller University, Deerfield Academy (former President of the Board), the Hackley School (former President of the Board), Wilmer Integrity Prize (President of the Board), Lincoln Center Theater, 9/11 Memorial & Museum and New York City Partnership. He also was a member of the Harvard Law School Visiting Committee and is a current member of the Tisch School of the Arts (NYU) Visiting Committee and advisory boards of Wall Street Rising, United Way of Westchester-Putnam and the University of Charleston.
Mr. Cohen is or has been a member of the FDIC Systemic Resolution Advisory Committee, the National Security Agency Cyber Awareness Panel, the Treasury Advisory Committee on the Auditing Profession, The New York State Commission to Modernize the Regulation of Financial Services and the Board of Trustees for the United States Council for International Business. He is or has also been Vice Chairman, Economic Studies Council of the Brookings Institution and a member of the Bipartisan Policy Center Financial Regulatory Reform Initiative, The Pew Financial Reform Project, the IIF Special Committee for a Strategic Dialogue for Effective Regulation and The Financial Services Roundtable’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Enhancing Competitiveness. In addition, Mr. Cohen was a member of the Group of 30 Study Groups on Financial Institution Reporting (2003) and on Global Institutions, National Supervision and Systemic Risk (1997) and the New York Superintendent’s Advisory Committee on Transnational Banking Institutions (1992). He was one of the leading participants in the bank negotiations to free the Iranian hostages and in the development of a new protocol for international payments.