When Julius H. Cohn founded J.H. Cohn LLP in 1919, Woodrow Wilson was president, Prohibition had just been ratified, and the world was still a decade away from the Great Depression. Many things have changed in the ensuing 90 years, including the company that Mr. Cohn, one of America’s first certified public accountants, founded. Today, J.H. Cohn is one of the leading accounting and consulting firms in the United States.
But the ethos with which Mr. Cohn founded the company has not changed: “If you do your best to faithfully serve your community, your clients, and your associates, the rest will take care of itself.”
This statement, a critical part of J.H. Cohn’s philosophy, continues to exemplify the Firm, through its network of offices in New Jersey, New York, California, and Connecticut; from the most senior partners to the newest employees. Mr. Cohn’s mission was to create a Firm that would serve its clients and employees with honesty and integrity. The company that exists today represents the fruits of that commitment as well as an ambitious expansion strategy led by CEO Thomas J. Marino. Marino, who started with the Firm in 1969, became the Firm’s chief executive in 1998, and has led J.H. Cohn’s transformation into a leading provider of accounting, audit, tax, and business consulting services.
Even while the Firm has grown, integrating hundreds of employees and complementary strategic acquisitions, the principles and core values upon which J.H. Cohn were founded have been continually ingrained in its partners and staff.
Staying True to Its Roots
Since its inception, the Firm has been guided by a mission to be not only an accountant for its clients, but also a trusted business advisor that can help clients conquer challenges and achieve desired outcomes in both their personal and professional lives. This year, as J.H. Cohn celebrates its 90th anniversary, the company and its employees look back on past economic troubles that the Firm and its clients have weathered. From the Great Depression and the energy crises of the 1970s to the burst of the dot-com bubble and the current chaos impacting the financial markets, J.H. Cohn has endured 11 recessions, 10 recoveries, and six wars. This perspective, rare among American accounting and consulting companies, serves J.H. Cohn well in navigating the challenges of—and finding the opportunities in—today’s global economic downturn.
J.H. Cohn’s focus remains on working with clients over the long term. Today, when stability is such an atypical commodity, this characteristic is more important than ever. Over the years, clients have come to depend on the Firm’s deep resources, namely its breadth of services and a diverse pool of talent. Experience in a wide variety of industries—including construction, real estate, not-for-profit, financial services, and manufacturing and distribution— and sectors, including private, public, not-for-profit, and entrepreneurial companies, provide clients with guidance on specific issues.
Continually Expanding Services to Meet Client Needs
The Firm’s penchant for building true partnerships with clients has produced a steady flow of new services designed to meet a changing business landscape. After the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was enacted in 2002, J.H. Cohn expanded its Corporate Governance Services practice. Today, the practice includes more than 125 professionals dedicated to assisting clients with corporate governance issues, making it one of the largest pools of SOX talent outside the Big Four.
J.H. Cohn’s Business Investigation Services (BIS) Group provides a range of services including Forensic Accounting and Litigation Support; Bankruptcy, Restructuring and Financial Recovery; Business Valuation; and Merger and Acquisition. The group has been involved in many of the country’s highest profile cases, such as WorldCom, a case in which J.H. Cohn’s forensic accounting and litigation group served as financial advisor.
In recent years, the Firm has established internal capabilities and aligned itself with highly reputable organizations in order to provide specialized services that help clients meet their personal and corporate financial goals. The Cohn Affiliated Companies offer benefits consulting, executive search, corporate financing, corporate risk management, real estate consulting, and wealth management services.
In 2008, J.H. Cohn appointed Patrick J. O’Keefe as its first-ever Director of Economic Research, making it one of the only firms outside of the Big Four with an economist on staff. Recently, J.H. Cohn formed the Client Economic Recovery Team (CERT), a practice designed to address the challenges and opportunities inherent in the U.S. Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). The program effectively positions the Firm to assist clients by helping them to both manage through the downturn and take advantage of any chances to grow during this volatile period.
Investing in the Firm’s Greatest Assets
Today, as the Firm celebrates 90 years in business, J.H. Cohn continues to be shaped by its commitment to its employees by nurturing a work environment that is conducive to employee well-being, education, and balance by introducing and continuing to grow such programs as e-learning, a formal mentoring program, and advanced remote work capabilities. J.H. Cohn’s Corporate Quality of Life Council institutes projects that seek to enhance employee morale and improve daily life in the office through two-way communication between partners and staff. The Firm's Partner Candidate Development Academy offers career development training to high-potential employees. And J.H. Cohn’s state-of-the-art Learning and Development department offers nearly 100 programs designed to help employees achieve career goals and increase their contribution to the Firm’s goals. Further, J.H. Cohn is able to offer flex-time, part-time, and work-at-home arrangements to qualified professionals thanks to a significant investment in employee-facing technologies.
CEO Marino believes that by providing effective training and giving employees information about the Firm, while treating each as a valued asset and embracing them with fairness, integrity, and honesty, the Firm gives its people the tools to deliver quality service.
“Our work is about relationships, so we teach our people to make it click and to deliver a level of service that keeps our clients satisfied,” Marino says. “As the Firm has grown and the world changes, it has been imperative that we teach our people the basic tenets of client relationship development, while encouraging them to become aligned with our clients’ business and making clients’ ambitions and dreams, their own.”
Read more on the Careers page.
Perhaps the most significant example of J.H. Cohn’s commitment to employee —growth—and Julius Cohn’s promise to serve the communities in which its people live and work—is the Firm’s commitment to promoting diversity by developing programs aimed at women.
Because so many highly qualified women leave the workforce at some point during their careers–a Center for Work-Life Policy study recently indicated that the figure is as high as 37%– J.H. Cohn created the Professional Women’s Program, the first of its kind among regional accounting firms. The program, founded in 2005, includes a wide array of resources including mentoring programs and special networking events that address women’s unique needs while allowing them to develop skills that help advance their careers.
“Our focus has to be not only on hiring women, but being able to retain them and put them in leadership positions,” Marino says.
The Firm is also highly attuned to working with another group that too often falls through the cracks: minority students. Marino believes that these students need to be given similar opportunities to advance, and need to be shown that there are many viable career options for them. To that end, Marino frequently asks partners and staff to visit inner city schools to talk to students about careers in accounting, and J.H. Cohn regularly arranges student visits to the Firm’s offices so young people can get a feel for what a business environment is like.
Laying the Groundwork for Growth
By the time the 1970s arrived, J.H. Cohn’s scope increased significantly, largely as a result of the move into business consulting and the establishment of highly targeted client services.
This period marked the first time J.H. Cohn began to look for growth beyond its audit and tax business. It was during this period that the Firm began to build out its advisory services for SEC-registered companies in areas such as reporting and regulatory compliance. During this period, Ted Cohn, the son of founder Julius, led the Firm’s successful expansion into consulting, offering management efficiency and technology consulting services, and oversaw the opening of an office in San Diego.
A Turning Point
Then, in the late 1980s, business began to decelerate, as a real estate crash and a wave of leveraged buyouts and bankruptcies resulted in a loss of nearly a quarter of the Firm’s clients.
By the mid 1990s, J.H. Cohn had reached a crossroads as business hit a plateau. The Firm’s key assets were a solid client base and its reputation. Executives held a retreat, working with a consultant to identify the root of the Firm’s challenges. “We were told that we had no vision,” Michael Cohen, Roseland Office Managing Partner, remembers. “The consultant told us that we weren’t going to be around for long.”
In response, the Firm’s partners developed a vision and a set of goals, and mapped out how to achieve them. “We decided we needed to make strategic acquisitions in order to grow,” Marino says. Partners set their sights on not just surviving, but thriving, and on becoming the largest player in its market.
A decade later, J.H. Cohn has grown from less than $20 million in revenues to more than $250 million today, making it one of the leading accounting and consulting firms in the United States. More important is the philosophical change the Firm has undertaken. J.H. Cohn grew from being a static “old faithful,” to a living, breathing organization that aspired to not just survive, but to thrive beyond anyone’s expectations, to be ambitious, and embrace unprecedented growth.
Realizing clients’ needs to think and act across national boundaries, J.H. Cohn is a member of Nexia International, a global network of independent accountancy, tax, and business advisors and the ninth largest provider of audit and advisory services worldwide. Through the alliance, J.H. Cohn provides clients with the necessary resources to help them compete more effectively in a global environment.
In 2006 J.H. Cohn began working with Joe Torre, making it the first firm its size to use a spokesperson.
“Joe embodies who J.H. Cohn is, what we’re about, and about the business values we hold close,” explains Marino. “Like us, Joe has managed his teams through unprecedented times, and he’s come out on top and helped them to come out on top. We’re proud to have him represent the Firm.”
Maintaining the Firm’s Core Values
While its business model may have changed, J.H. Cohn’s culture and values have not. The Firm continues to base its decision-making on what best serves the long-term interests of clients and employees.
“We haven’t lost who we think we are: an alternative to the Big Four,” Cohen says. “We bring a more personalized level of service. Clients who were at the bottom of their food chain are now at the top of ours.”
A Legacy of Community Service
Throughout J.H. Cohn’s history, community service has been a cornerstone of its business philosophy. The Firm has consistently sought to help and provide for less fortunate individuals. Today the Firm’s efforts revolve around assisting children. Through the J.H. Cohn Foundation, the Firm created Cohn for Kids
SM, an umbrella organization for the children’s charities that the Firm supports through a series of events such as a golf tournament, employee bowl-a-thons, and other fundraising activities. Managed by Michael Cohen, Cohn for Kids focuses mainly on four charities: The Make-A-Wish Foundation of New Jersey, the Joe Torre Safe At Home® Foundation, the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, and the Medhen Orphan Relief Effort (M.O.R.E.).
Cohn for Kids was effectively launched when the Firm held its inaugural Bowl-A-Thon in 2002. Since the initial event that raised $7,000 to pay for a single donation to Make-A-Wish of New Jersey, J.H. Cohn’s Bowl-A-Thon has raised $750,000. In 2008, J.H. Cohn held two Bowl-A-Thons, raising $200,000 for Make-a-Wish. Cohn for Kids also supports the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, which provides assistance to children of U.S. special operations forces who have died in combat or training. J.H. Cohn holds an annual golf outing to raise money for secondary education for these children. Cohn for Kids was founded on the belief that the Firm’s success should be spread to others who are not as fortunate. “Our job is to do right by the community,” Cohen says. “Our partners recognize that because of the Firm’s financial success, we have been blessed in many ways.”
J.H. Cohn encourages partners to be active in the community, whether it is participating on a board of education or donating time or money to religious organizations, and to pursue their personal charitable passions. A hallmark example of this is Cohn Consulting Group Office Managing Partner Anthony Zecca’s 2007 founding of his own not-for-profit organization, the Medhen Orphan Relief Effort (M.O.R.E.), which supports Ethiopian children with AIDS. MORE has received support from a number of the Firm’s partners and received a $100,000 commitment from J.H. Cohn.
Read more on the Community Involvement page.J.H. Cohn, like every other organization, is staring in the eyes of a deepening financial crisis. Failures by companies that were once thought of as indomitable have forced service businesses to reaffirm the health of clients. And, while J.H. Cohn is focused on client retention, the Firm is opportunistic, seeking out potential business combinations and new talent that can help the Firm grow. New business lines such as its Certified Insolvency and Restructuring Advisors have positioned the Firm to take advantage of today’s trends. The Firm will look for ways in which its bankruptcy and workout groups can do more to help clients as a number of businesses become troubled.
J.H. Cohn has been able to change with the times, yet hold true to its core values. The Firm continues to adapt to changing environments, expanding into new areas and practices, while maintaining its culture—one built on honesty and integrity in serving the needs of its clients, employees, and the community.
"No one would have believed we could have gone from where we were in 1996 to where we are today, with more than 1,000 employees and more than $250 million in revenues,” says CEO Marino. “That’s a nice achievement, but the real one is having the people here to do it. It's the people and talent that allowed us to get there. The quality of our team today is the strongest it has been in the 90 years we have been around."