RICHARD P. COLE By: Nancy Esteves
Richard P. Cole is the Managing Partner of the largest Florida law firm Cole, Scott and Kissane, with 525 attorneys and 13 offices throughout the state. This top Florida firm specializes in the areas of personal injury defense law, medical, legal, and professional malpractice. The firm modestly began with just 10 attorneys and grew to over to an impressive 525 lawyers.
“This is not just my accomplishment, it’s the firm’s accomplishment,” says Cole. “This is not done by one person, but by a great team.”
ole’s area of expertise is defending professionals in malpractice suits, as well as administrative investigations related to their professional licenses and he has litigated in the Probable Cause Panels handling Errors and Omissions claims, brought against, accounts, insurance brokers and real estate agents, as well as against other licensed professionals. He is a past Director of the Dade County Defense Bar Association and President and Director of the Dade County Bar Association, and a past Delegate to the United States Eleventh Circuit Conference. Cole was recently appointed by the Governor to serve on the University of Florida Board of Trustees, and is a UF alumni. His accolades read like a Who’s Who List: Selected as one of the Top 1.7% of Civil Trial Lawyers in the State of Florida by Florida Trend Magazine (2005-2019); The Best Lawyers in America (20062021); Florida Super Lawyers (2006-2020); Lifetime Achievement Selection to America’s Top 100 Attorneys®; and Marquis Who’sWho® Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient (2019-2020), to name a few. “My greatest accomplishment was surrounding myself with very talented people who were able to work together to accomplish what we’ve accomplished.” He comes from a background of attorneys. His dad was a lawyer and his two brothers, although they’ve never practiced together, are also lawyers. Cole says he was actually going to study banking but ended up with a law degree because he was told it would be more valuable and started his career at an early age.
Madoff’s accountant. Madoff is currently serving a federal prison sentence for offenses related to a massive Ponzi scheme. Cole was able to settle the civil matters for Madoff’s accountant before Madoff plead guilty. Another high-profile case was representing the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. As an active philanthropist, he says his most rewarding work is with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and he recently received an award from the American Cancer Society. Many of his family members including himself have been diagnosed with cancer. Recently, he donated $20 million to the University of Florida Levin College of Law’s health law program in honor of his late father, a fellow UF law alumnus. During his free time, Coles likes playing golf and travels to his North Carolina home often. He enjoys traveling to London and visiting the British Museum where he can relish in his British Heritage. His dad was actually born in the UK and came to the U.S. as a baby. “London to me is the most interesting city imaginable. It has so much of the history of the world.” “I used to hire a guide who worked for the house of commons to visit the most interesting exhibits.” In the coming months, he believes there will be an uptick in nursing home lawsuits.
He has worked on numerous high-profile cases such as defending Bernard
“We certainly know that nursing homes have very frail people in them and whether there was sufficient testing and safety measures necessary to protect those people will be a real question. Those cases haven’t really started yet, but I think you are going to see them soon.”
Richard P. Cole es Managing Partner del bufete de abogados más grande de Florida, Cole, Scott and Kissane, con 525 abogados y 13 oficinas en todo el estado. Esta importante firma de Florida se especializa en las áreas de derecho de defensa de lesiones personales, negligencia médica, legal y profesional.
La firma comenzó modestamente con solo 10 abogados y creció hasta llegar a la impresionante cantidad de 525 abogados. Cole has sido galardonado a la Membresía de por vida a los 100 mejores abogados de Estados Unidos y cuenta con numerosos prestigiosos premios de la industria.
“It kind of runs in the family,” he says.
