Press Release

Boston, MA, June 27, 2023 – Burns & Levinson announced today that partner Jerry Cohen has received the 2023 Access to Justice Pro Bono Publico Award from the Massachusetts Bar Association (MBA). The Access to Justice Awards recognize attorneys who use their exemplary legal skills to serve the community.

Cohen, who is a partner in the firm’s Intellectual Property & IP Litigation Group, has been active in pro bono activities throughout his long legal career. He has spent many years handling pro bono projects for the ACLU Massachusetts; the Massachusetts Bar Foundation, where he previously served as president; and the Center for Constitutional Rights, where he was a volunteer lawyer defending Guantanamo Bay detainees for 12 years. He was among the developers of the Boston and New Bedford-based Justice Bridge, which is part of a network of local judges, senior lawyers, and academics who mentor and advise law graduates from UMass/Dartmouth law school who are providing reduced fee legal services to low-income clients. This innovative program has been recognized nationwide as a model legal incubator.

He is a past recipient of the Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education’s New England Scholar-Mentor Award, the Boston Patent Law Association’s Pro Bono Lifetime Achievement Award, the Massachusetts Bar Foundation’s Great Friend of Justice Award, the BBA Award for Service in Guantanamo Defense, and the William Ledoux Award for service to the Massachusetts Client Security Board. 

In his intellectual property law practice, Cohen handles patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret, unfair competition, antitrust and IP misuse, licensing/franchising, visual arts, software, databases and publication law, formation and operation of business enterprises and not-for-profit organizations, international trade, litigation/ADR, and legal ethics matters for a wide range of clients. He has served as an expert witness, arbitrator, and mediator in intellectual property matters. Cohen is currently a mediator/arbitrator at the JAMS, Inc. Boston Resolution Center.

He is an adjunct professor at Roger Williams University Law School and UMass/Dartmouth Law School, and previously taught IP law at Suffolk University. He received his J.D., with distinction, from George Washington University and his B.S. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.