Lawrence R. Cohan, a Shareholder of Anapol Schwartz, chairs the firm's Toxic Tort Litigation Department.
He is a New Jersey Certified Civil Trial Attorney and Certified Trial Advocate with the National Board of Trial Advocacy. Mr. Cohan concentrates his practice in toxic torts including asbestos, chemicals and other dangerous products; pharmaceutical liability; vaccine related injuries; medical malpractice; products liability; FELA; and complex personal injury matters.
Serving in leading roles in many complex cases, Mr. Cohan has forged new law in both the trial and appellate court levels in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Washington, D.C. He has served as Plaintiff's Liaison Counsel in lead paint, asbestos and lymerix vaccine litigation. He served as lead counsel in the first and only lead poisoning case filed in Pennsylvania against the lead pigment industry, pursuing the novel "market share" theory of liability all the way to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. He also obtained the first plaintiff's verdict in an asbestos case in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, with the first verdict of its kind against asbestos "friction" product defendants, GE, GTE and Eaton Cutler-Hammer Corporation.
Mr. Cohan has obtained million dollar jury verdicts in toxic tort and medical malpractice cases in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. He also represents victims suffering from adverse reactions to vaccines before the United States Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., as part of the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.
On a regular basis, Mr. Cohan writes and lectures about toxic torts, pharmaceutical, asbestos, vaccine, lead and medical malpractice litigation, doing so on both local and national levels. He has lectured for many bar associations and trial lawyer associations, frequently serving as Chair of these conferences.
A member of the Environmental Law Committee of the Pennsylvania Bar Association, Mr. Cohan has served in various bar association positions. He is a member of the American, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Philadelphia Bar Associations, as well as the American, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Associations. He is presently serving as a member of the Board of Directors of the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association. He has also lobbied on behalf of children injured by lead poisoning with the Pennsylvania legislature.
In 1976, Mr. Cohan earned his Bachelor's degree, summa cum laude, from Boston University. He received his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1979, where he served for two years as President of the Law School Environmental Law Group. He also completed an internship with the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Upon graduation, he served in a two-year judicial clerkship with the Philadelphia County Trial Court's Honorable Harry A. Takiff, who founded the asbestos litigation mass tort program.
Mr. Cohan is the immediate past Chairman of the Board of Jewish Community Centers (JCC) of Greater Philadelphia and past President of the Kaiserman Jewish Community Center. He is a member of the Board and Executive Board of the Jewish Foundation of Greater Philadelphia. The JCCs serve more than 40,000 individuals throughout the Philadelphia area. He is actively involved in many areas of community and public service, as well as a member of the Board of the Riverbend Environmental Association.
