Randall Cohn's path to Pivot Legal Society began in 2009, working overnight shifts at a small church-based homeless shelter in South Minneapolis. At the time, he was supposed to be preparing for PhD exams in cultural studies. Instead, he found himself more interested in the praxis of direct-service work than in books about critical theory and political economy. After a few months, he quit the program and became a full-time housing outreach worker. That decision set in motion a 15-year journey through direct service, criminal defense, and refugee law – a journey that has now brought him to Pivot as Executive Director.

Working in the Twin Cities homeless services sector, Randall came to understand how conventional approaches to supportive housing, mental health, and chemical health services often further stigmatize, exclude and exploit the most vulnerable people in our communities. He met other outreach workers, nurses, organizers, and community members who taught him about harm reduction and how to provide harm-reduction information and supplies to the people he was serving, often working semi-legally and using resources from organizations that could not formally endorse those tactics.

Through that work I developed an approach to advocacy grounded in humility and solidarity, and I confronted the paradoxes of working for social justice from within colonial and racist institutions.

Randall Cohn

Randall watched city and county initiatives to "end homelessness" get launched with great fanfare, only to become sanitized efforts to rid gentrifying neighborhoods of visible poverty. His clients would come to him with complaints about mistreatment by police or service providers, asking for legal help he couldn't provide, which ultimately drove him to law school. He attended on scholarship while continuing to work full time, focusing his studies on how vulnerable peoples' rights are ignored or violated within the criminal system. Randall first became aware of Pivot’s work during this time when he attended the 9th National Harm Reduction Conference in Portland, Oregon and heard a presentation about Pivot’s drug policy reform work. Pivot’s model of legal advocacy genuinely rooted in community organizing and accountable to the people most affected by criminalization inspired him as he began his legal career.

After graduating, he worked for just under three years as a public defender in Minneapolis, where he primarily represented defendants facing 'lifestyle' charges used as pretext for targeted harassment of racialized and Indigenous people living their lives in public space. He was also recognized by the Minnesota chapter of the National Lawyers Guild for his work representing Black Lives Matter activists and land defenders at Standing Rock.

I'm proud of my work in an office of public defenders that was committed to providing vigorous advocacy for clients faced with supposedly 'low-level' charges, understanding how misdemeanor convictions entrench people in the carceral system.

Randall Cohn

In 2018, Randall relocated to British Columbia and completed articles with Peter Edelmann. For the next five years, he worked as an associate at Edelmann & Co., specializing in complex refugee claims, defense against deportation, and judicial review of immigration decisions. He maintained a substantial Legal Aid practice, acted as immigration detention duty counsel, conducted know-your-rights trainings, and mentored junior lawyers and law students. In 2024, Randall opened his own solo practice. But as he built it, he was forced to confront the structural incompatibility between private practice and the justice work he set out to do when he became a lawyer. Joining Pivot is an opportunity to recenter his conviction that everyone deserves access to and protection by the law.

Randall believes that the slow pace and elite discourse of legal advocacy exist in tension with the daily urgency of lived injustice. He understands that the formalities, schedules, and reporting requirements of a professional workplace must be balanced with the flexibility required to do work with people who are often struggling with complex trauma, chemical and mental health concerns, or precarious living situations. He believes that Pivot is uniquely situated to do this impactful legal work effectively and hold power to account.

Pivot is a rare thing: a legal advocacy organization that is rooted in its community, clear in its commitments, well-resourced, and respected – if not always welcome – at the sites of political and judicial power.

Randall Cohn

Pivot Staff and Board are excited to have Randall Cohn in this role. We extend our appreciation to our coworkers Steph Wiafe (Co-Development Manager), Chadash Black (Finance Director), and former staff lawyer Anna Cooper, who stepped forward in the interim to ensure Pivot’s continuity.

For general and media inquiries, please contact:

Taz Khandwani
Communications and Digital Engagement Manager
[email protected]