Garrison Cohen ’14: Redefining His Passion
In the featured image above, Garrison Cohen ’14 served as Master of Ceremonies for National Networking Knight in 2023 and 2024.
Garrison Cohen ’14, an attorney with Holland & Knight, had a different path to the legal profession.
Growing up in Tampa, Cohen began attending Grace Family Church when he was in middle school. There, he joined a youth group where he became more involved in its ministry.
He realized, while volunteering with his church, that he had a passion for helping people.
Cohen Discovers His Passion
Cohen had been through some turbulence on the way to this discovery. His parents went through a bitter divorce when he was in middle school, and he says he had probably grown up faster than many of his peers. Estranged from his father for a few years, Cohen discussed with his mother the changes that were going on in his life, and she wholeheartedly supported his decision.
Later, Cohen’s mother would be baptized in his church, and he would reconcile with his father. Both parents have since passed away.
“My mom supported me in every endeavor of anything that was related to the ministry and helping people,” Cohen says. “And my dad … he was the one who had originally told me I should be an attorney, and I am grateful that I had a great relationship with both my parents before they passed away.”
How Helping Others Led Him to a Life of Service
It’s clear now to Cohen that his acts of service through the church group were helping him process his own feelings during middle school.
“I remember that even though my friends in the youth group and I were too young to help build houses,” Cohen says, “We went into the community, door-to-door, asking if the residents had any yard work we could help with and assisted with food drives to help stock area food pantries.”
Cohen and other members of the youth group also distributed food packages and hygiene kits to the homeless and worked with Tampa Thunder Power Wheelchair Soccer, a competitive team developed specifically for power wheelchair users.
He was drawn to helping the soccer team because he had been involved in sports nearly all his life, he says. Cohen made a critical pivot in the tenth grade when he decided to put service of others ahead of his own love of sports. His coaches made clear if he wanted to continue advancing in baseball, Cohen had to make a choice between his youth group activities and service to others, and baseball, the sport Cohen had played year-round for nearly a decade at that point.
“That was a critical day that turned my mind, not away from sports and not away from the team, but from what I wanted to do in my life. I wanted to help people,” Cohen says. “And from there, that’s kind of what changed me.”
After that, Cohen spent the next few years learning and growing as a youth minister and began to consider his next steps.
The acts of service to which Cohen was exposed during middle and high school continued to fuel his passion, and he felt called to ministry. After high school, Cohen was accepted into Southeastern University, a private Christian university in Lakeland.
But then, Cohen had an epiphany of a different sort.
Cohen Takes the Path Less Traveled
He had a few days before classes started at Southeastern and had gone to UCF to visit some friends there.
“There couldn’t have been a more perfect time to visit UCF,” Cohen recalls. “Pegasus Palooza was happening, and there were so many great things to do on campus – comedy shows, concerts, giveaways – I was really excited to be there. By the time my friends and I had walked from their dorm to the arena, I knew I was going to transfer here. Keep in mind that my classes [at Southeastern] hadn’t even started yet.”
On that two-hour drive home to Lakeland, Cohen did some soul-searching. He realized that he would rather speak for somebody rather than speaking to them from a lectern.
“I realized that I could perhaps better serve as someone’s advocate as an attorney, as opposed to a pastor or minister.”
There is nothing wrong with either option, Cohen says. His calling had simply changed. His parents supported his decision; but Cohen was also bolstered by a Bible verse: ‘Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.’ Joshua 1.9.
Cohen Becomes a Knight
Once Cohen had made his decision, there was still some scrambling to make sure he started at UCF the next semester. He was accepted, pending a successful completion of his first semester at Southeastern. When he received his official transcripts in a sealed envelope, he wasn’t taking any chances: he drove to UCF that day and hand-delivered them to the registrar.
Since that day, Cohen has dived into UCF full force. He majored in legal studies and minored in business administration. With his classes starting in just seven days, there was a bit of chaos, he says. But he was so sure that he had made the right choice, and everything just seemed to fall in place for him, he says that he had no doubts.
UCF does not have an official “pre-law” tract that requires admittance, but they do have a pre-law advising through the College of Community Innovation and Education. The Pre-Health and Pre-Law office assists students interested in careers in the health and legal professions that require study in professional school settings beyond the baccalaureate degree.
Cohen took courses on contracts, civil and criminal law, management of a law office, and other classes that would assist him as he studied for the Law School Admittance Test. He was also deeply involved with his fraternity, Tau Kappa Epsilon; a member of the club rugby team; and, along with his sister, co-founded a nonprofit called 4 Letter Word that traveled to Central America on agricultural missions to help the community there become more profitable with their farming. With his sister, Cohen helped develop a way to take scrap building pallets and convert them into chicken coops.
Cohen not only had the support of his immediate family, he had the support of his future family. Cohen met his wife, Jaimie ’16, in his senior year at UCF, and the two have been together ever since. Cohen says the love, support, and drive his wife shows him and others is also a reason he is so proud to serve others.

Cohen Earns His Law Degree
After UCF, Cohen was accepted at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, where he graduated in 2017, moved back to the Tampa area and began practicing business litigation. Soon, he became involved in UCF’s Tampa Bay Alumni Community. He was interested in attending watch parties with some of his fraternity brothers, especially since he was a witness to the era of Scott Frost, and the precursor of UCF’s entrance into the Big 12.

Cohen continued his involvement with UCF when he accepted a position with Holland & Knight in Orlando. He is currently a member-at-large with the UCF Greater Orlando Alumni Community where he serves on the fundraising committee, assists with the planning and budgeting of UCF’s National Networking Knight and other events.

Cohen is also still involved with his fraternity on a national level, and on a personal level.
“We have had a continuous group chat going for years, we’ve been in each other’s weddings, we play Fantasy Football, and we play golf at least once a month,” Cohen says. “This camaraderie that we built at UCF has been going strong for more than 13 years now.”

What is Chicken?
In addition to the enduring friendships he made at UCF, Cohen also holds fond memories of his coursework involving the Frigaliment Importing Co. v. B.N.S. International Sales Corp.
“I mean, I’ve blocked a lot about this case from my mind,” Cohen laughs, “But there was a time when I was in law school at UF that I pulled up one of my UCF PowerPoints from my contracts class, and it helped remind me what I needed to know about this case. It was a UCF course and the education from my UCF teachers that helped me in law school”
When Cohen was studying at UCF, he was a law clerk for a local personal injury law firm in the Orlando area. It was there that he became interested in the litigation side of the legal profession, which is the process of resolving parties’ legal disputes through the court system, the inevitable goal being that the parties either settle their differences or go to trial.
Cohen had talked with his family about the pros and cons of specializing in different types of litigation. With his mother’s and father’s advice Cohen felt he was best suited for speaking for his clients through the complex intricacies involved in business litigation.
“I knew I had an interest in business-related matters and issues, and I also knew I with good mentors I could develop my skills to represent our clients well in court,” Cohen says. “Litigation and serving my clients in court has become my passion and my life’s work.”
When Cohen’s clients come to him to express their appreciation, “I tell them that they don’t have to thank me, that I would do this for them no matter what,” Cohen says. “This is not only my calling, but my privilege to work as hard as I can on their behalf, and I am happy to help them.”

Sustaining Involvement with UCF
Cohen is also committed to helping UCF and UCF alumni succeed.
“I think that being connected to UCF alumni is great for several reasons,” Cohen says. “We are all excited to be here and are willing to help each other become successful in business.”
But there is, perhaps, an even higher purpose, Cohen says, to join an alumni community.
“By personally staying involved with UCF, or getting back involved with UCF, you can create so many new friendships, networking opportunities, and personal connections that you might never think about,” Cohen says. “Even if you’re not interested in sports, UCF has so many resources that you can access as an alumnus. You already have so many things in common with our alumni, we have this common denominator that unifies us all – we’re all Knights, and that’s something pretty great.”
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