About Laura
Laura Cohen built a legal career that begins with a Pennsylvania education and stretches into courtroom practice at the national level. She earned her J.D. from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 1993 after completing a B.A. in Political Science at Chatham College in 1991. Those early academic years set the stage for steady work in family law and dispute resolution.
She opened Family Legal Center, LLC in 1996 and has served as its managing owner since then. Over the years she has handled a wide range of client matters typical of a small family law practice. Her role has involved courtroom filings, negotiated settlements, and out-of-court dispute resolution. Running a firm has also meant attending to the practical demands of client intake, case management, and supervising support staff.
Cohen’s professional tools include formal training in collaborative practice and mediation. She holds a certification in collaborative law from IACP and is a certified mediator through CVVC. Those credentials reflect a practice that frequently seeks consensual outcomes, whether through collaborative processes or mediated settlements. At the same time, she maintains the ability to litigate when a case requires courtroom advocacy.
She is admitted to practice in Pennsylvania and is also admitted before the U.S. Supreme Court. Membership in local and state bar organizations has been part of her professional life since the mid-1990s. She has been a member of the Pennsylvania State Bar and the Pennsylvania Bar Association since 1996, and she belongs to the Allegheny County Bar Association where she has participated in the Family Law and Trust and Probate Sections. In 2008 she became a Fellow of the Allegheny County Bar Foundation.
Cohen has combined private practice with community involvement. From 2005 to 2011 she served on the Board of Directors of the Neighborhood Legal Services Association. She is also a member of the National Association of Professional Women, a network she joined in 2006. Those roles reflect work that extends beyond individual client files to broader access and service issues in the region.
Colleagues and clients see her as a lawyer who balances negotiation tools and courtroom readiness. Cases handled at Family Legal Center run the spectrum of family law matters, and she often uses collaborative sessions or mediation before turning to litigation. Her current practice centers on family law, mediation and collaborative practice.
