Douglas R. Cole

Doug Cole coordinates the Firm's Columbus issues & appeals practice and participates in the Firm's intellectual property practice. He is an experienced litigator at all levels of the state and federal judiciaries, including the U.S. Supreme Court where he has argued five cases as well as served as the counsel of record in more than 20 other cases. In addition to his Supreme Court representations, Doug has argued more than 15 cases in the Ohio Supreme Court and Sixth Circuit in a wide variety of substantive legal areas.

Doug's practice focuses on complex civil litigation with an emphasis on intellectual property including patent litigation and counseling, securities, and state and local tax matters. Representative clients include Federated, for whom he filed a cert petition in a tax matter, Dell, and EDS. Examples of recent patent representations include GE, AutoNation, Movietickets.com, and Nokia. Doug has a strong technical background with undergraduate degrees in electrical engineering, physics, and mathematics.

From 2002 to 2006, at the request of the Ohio attorney general, Doug served as Ohio's state solicitor. In that capacity, he served as Ohio's chief appellate attorney, representing the state in the U.S. Supreme Court, the Ohio Supreme Court, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. As solicitor, Doug was counsel of record on numerous petitions for certiorari, amicus briefs in support of petitions, and merits briefs both for parties and as an amicus. The cases covered a wide variety of subject matter areas including the First Amendment, the Commerce Clause, contract law, statutory interpretation, and various aspects of criminal law.

Doug frequently speaks and writes on various subjects including intellectual property, securities, and the U.S. Supreme Court. Doug is active in the Ohio State Bar Association, having served on the board of editors for the Ohio State Bar Journal. He is currently on the OSBA antitrust section leadership committee and is also a member of the Franklin American Inn of Court.

Before serving as state solicitor, Doug was a law professor at the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. He taught courses in contracts, business associations, and law & economics. Doug continues to serve as an adjunct faculty member.