Adrian Leon Cohen (born 22 July 1963) is an English solicitor who is also Senior Vice-President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews and Lay Chair of the Labour Friends of Israel.[1]
Cohen, who was born at Mile End in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, grew up in Ilford[2] in the London Borough of Redbridge and went to Wanstead High School. He studied at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), where he received a bachelor's degree in Law,[3] and at Queen Mary University of London where he was awarded a Master of Laws degree.
He chaired the Union of Jewish Students from 1985 to 1986.[4]
On leaving university, Cohen became a pupil barrister. He qualified as a solicitor in 1996.[5]
Between 1988 and 1990 he was a part-time tutor at LSE, teaching commercial law.
Cohen has been Senior Consultant at McDermott Will & Emery since May 2024.[6] He was previously a partner at Proskauer Rose LLP[3] [7] and, before that, worked for 32 years at Clifford Chance,[3] [8] becoming a partner in 1998.
He was briefly a London Borough of Camden councillor in 2022.[9]
Cohen is an elected honorary officer of the Board of Deputies and took office as its Senior Vice-President in June 2024.[10] [11] He is also Lay Chair of the Labour Friends of Israel,[1]
He was a trustee of the Jewish Leadership Council from 2018 to 2021.[12] He is a founder member[13] of the London Jewish Forum, of which he was co-chair until June 2024.[14] He was also, for two terms until 2023, a trustee of Reprieve UK, the legal action NGO.[8]
In September 2022 he married Marie van der Zyl, the then-President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, at West London Synagogue.[2] [15]