About Jeffrey Cook

Jeff Cook brings more than 35 years of experience and strategic vision to his business and banking law clients. Because no two business deals are the same, he works closely with each client to understand the client’s goals, strengths, and challenges, to develop the right business and legal strategy.  For Jeff, only a 100 percent investment in achieving results for the client will do, and he relishes the challenge of organizing and leading a complicated business deal.

After graduating from Columbia Law School, Jeff completed a clerkship in the US District Court (SDNY) in New York City.  From there he joined a large New York City law firm where he intended to work in litigation.  Much to his surprise, and almost by accident, he discovered that the process of buying, selling, and restructuring businesses was fascinating, and that subjects that seemed dry in law school were actually compelling in practice.

Now Chairman of the Firm, the senior member of the firm’s Business and Banking Group, and one of the leaders of the Firm’s Crisis Intervention Group, Jeff represents many of the leading businesses in Western Massachusetts (including multigenerational family businesses), and has played an important role in their development, planning, and ownership succession. Jeff has worked on hundreds of mergers and acquisitions for buyers and sellers, and he advises new and established businesses on all aspects of capital formation. He works hard with his clients to determine (a) how business succession works within a family, (b) when is the right time for a family to sell a business, and (c) how to prepare the sellers for life after the deal.  He also works hard with growing regional businesses seeking to make strategic acquisitions.

He is corporate counsel to The Boston Symphony Orchestra and other tax-exempt organizations in the region, counseling them on business, tax, and regulatory issues.  Right from the time Jeff moved his practice from New York City to Pittsfield, he has represented physicians in all aspects of practice operation, affiliation, and acquisition.  He has negotiated and executed acquisition agreements and professional services arrangements between physicians and (i) medical centers and (ii) other physician organizations, throughout Western Massachusetts.

Jeff regularly mentors up-and-coming businesspeople, and is dedicated to the development of minority business leaders. He has served on the boards of a wide variety of nonprofits, and was recently reelected as Secretary and member of the Executive Committee of the Massachusetts Business Roundtable, of which he is a long-standing member. He is the Chairman of the Berkshire Business Roundtable; serves as the Secretary and a board member of 1Berkshire Strategic Alliance Inc., the newly organized umbrella organization for economic development of the Berkshires; and is on the board of directors for the John Adams Innovation Institute of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative.

In 2016, Jeff was honored with the Robert K. Agar Jr. Volunteerism Award from the Berkshire United Way, for his exemplary personal commitment and dedication to the ideals of volunteerism. He is also the recipient of the Lawrence W. Strattner Distinguished Citizen Award and the Massachusetts Bar Association Community Service Award.

An avid outdoorsman, he can often be found on ski slopes or trails, or kayaking, hiking, or biking with his wife, three children, their spouses, and eight grandchildren.

He pursues his lifelong love of music both through the Berkshire Music School, for which he helped create the “Cabaret to Go” program, and by teaching of bar and bat mitzvah students at Congregation Knesset Israel in Pittsfield.