May 20, 2025
The Lawdragon Legends are our most prestigious group of lawyers, having been honored in our flagship Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America over 10 times. So, we always take notice when there’s a concentration of several Legends in one firm, especially a small or mid-sized one.
That’s the case with the four Legends at Washington, D.C.-based Cohen Milstein. With practices ranging from human rights and employee discrimination to securities litigation and investor protection, these Legends form a bright constellation of justice-seeking advocacy of the highest order.
Over a career spanning more than four decades, Joseph Sellers, founder and co-chair of Cohen Milstein’s Civil Rights & Employment practice, has helped draft legislation such as the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the Civil Rights Act of 1991, and the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act of 2009. He has litigated more than 75 class and collective actions, challenging, for example, gender discrimination at the largest chain of jewelry stores in the country and the largest U.S. law enforcement agency, race discrimination in staffing agencies, the denial of access to credit to Native Americans by the USDA, and the failure to pay for all time worked by large chicken processing companies and large restaurant chains. He became a Lawdragon Legend in 2016.
Agnieszka Fryszman joined Cohen Milstein in 1998 after serving as a U.S. House of Representatives committee counsel. As chair and founder of Cohen Milstein’s Human Rights practice, she has represented victims of torture, human trafficking, forced and slave labor, and other violations of international law. She has taken on corporate giants such as Exxon over alleged human rights violations in Indonesia and Chiquita Brands over alleged violations in Colombia. She became a Lawdragon Legend in 2019.
Steven Toll, the former managing partner of Cohen Milstein for 26 years and current co-chair of the Securities Litigation & Investor Protection practice, joined the firm in 1979. He has led or co-led some of the nation’s highest-profile stock fraud lawsuits in the past 30 years. Recent wins include a landmark $1 billion settlement against Wells Fargo and an appeals court ruling limiting safe harbor protections for forward-looking statements in a lawsuit against electronics maker Harman International Industries. He became a Legend in 2019 as well.
Julie Reiser, co-chair of Cohen Milstein’s Securities Litigation & Investor Protection practice, was inducted as a Lawdragon Legend this year, after these interviews were conducted. Reiser is a highly accomplished securities litigator, perhaps best known for her landmark $310 million settlement against Alphabet in a shareholder derivative action that held the corporate board accountable for claims of sexual harassment, discrimination, and retaliation.
The common thread between these very accomplished Legends is a devotion to advocacy and their consistent ability to garner positive, impactful results for their clients and bring about corporate reforms. We were fortunate to chat with Fryszman, Toll, and Sellers about their stand-out practices and some of their most memorable cases.
Read The Bright Cluster of Lawdragon Legends at Cohen Milstein.