Appointment of Dennis Cohen as Executive Counsel and Labor Designee

From President Frank H. Wu

I am pleased to announce that following a national search, Dennis Cohen has been appointed as executive counsel and labor designee for Queens College. The appointment has been approved by the CUNY Board of Trustees. An attorney and former judge, Dennis has extensive nonprofit experience with municipalities, counties, and district court and is a highly experienced litigator, negotiator, and expert in contract and labor law. He will report directly to the president.

Dennis has a long record of public service. He was a senior attorney for the Workers’ Compensation Board in Brooklyn; served the Town of Babylon as an assistant, deputy, and finally town attorney; was chief deputy county executive and county attorney for Suffolk County; and most recently was corporation counsel for the City of Long Beach. In addition, he is former district court judge in Suffolk County District Court. His experience involves numerous high-level responsibilities in municipal and county offices. Among them, he supervised town and legal staff (including about 70 attorneys for Suffolk County), drafted legislation and contracts, handled and supervised litigation, and represented public entities in employment-related issues and collective-bargaining negotiations (including 12 different municipal unions). As a judge, he presided over both civil and criminal cases.

Dennis also brings teaching experience to QC. At Hofstra he was an adjunct professor, instructing second-year law students in core lawyering skills. He volunteered as an instructor for the Town of Babylon Youth Court, where he taught high school students about law at all levels of government and prepared them to serve as attorneys, judges, and jurors in mock trials. He has coached Little League baseball and youth basketball for many years.

A member of the State Bar of New York and the Eastern District of New York, Dennis holds a BA in sociology from the State University of New York at Old Westbury and a JD from Hofstra University School of Law. As executive counsel, he will hold primary responsibility for managing litigation and negotiations on issues involving the administration, faculty, staff, and students. He will advise the college on a wide range of administrative concerns such as contracts and compliance with state and federal law; develop significant legal documents and correspondence; and administer and interpret university bylaws, policies, and procedures as well as collective-bargaining agreements. Dennis also will serve as the college ethics officer and records access officer, responsible for training college employees in compliance with ethics obligations and responding to subpoenas and Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests. In addition, he will be the campus immigration liaison. He is expected to work closely with CUNY’s Office of the General Counsel.

I would like to thank the search committee chair, Assistant Vice President for External and Governmental Relations Jeffrey Rosenstock and the search committee members for their service. I also extend my appreciation to the college community search panels that interviewed finalists.

Please join me in congratulating Dennis on his appointment. He can be reached at dennis.cohen@qc.cuny.edu.

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