Cohen Milstein Appoints Benjamin D. Brown Managing Partner (1)

Benjamin D. Brown has been named managing partner of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, as the mid-size firm addresses hybrid work and rapidly-changing AI tools.

He succeeds Steven J. Toll who held the position for over two decades, the firm said. While Brown has no radical mandate in taking leadership of the plaintiff-only firm, he said the goal is to continue organic growth.

“We always keep our ears to the ground in terms of where the strongest cases are,” Brown said. “Traditionally that has led to some stability in the firm in terms of antitrust and securities litigation being the two main engines of the firm.”

Brown said he will remain co-chair of the antitrust practice simultaneously with his managing partner position. He previously served in the antitrust division of the Justice Department.

He represents Japanese transport company Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd. and Japanese shipping company NYK Japan in antitrust cases against other transport companies, including Norfolk Southern Corp. in the US District Court for the Northern District of California and US District Court for the District of Columbia.

“I’m not ready to scale back entirely on my active litigation and will probably get in one or two fewer cases in the years to come,” Brown said.

The firm has over 150 employees and eight offices, including in Chicago, New York and Washington, DC.

An earlier version of this story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Law Automation.