Michael T. Cole is a partner of Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP in Charleston and is the Chair of the Firm’s Litigation Department. He practices in the area of litigation with a focus on complex litigation, including class actions, toxic torts, product liability, insurance extra contractual issues, and negligence cases. Prior to joining the Firm in 1995, Mr. Cole was the managing partner of Wise and Cole, PA, a firm he co-founded in Charleston.

Mr. Cole is a member of the South Carolina Bar (past chairman, Insurance and Tort Litigation Section). Mr. Cole has lectured at numerous seminars on various product liability issues. Since 1974, he has been actively engaged in a litigation practice and has tried numerous negligence, product liability, and commercial litigation matters. Mr. Cole serves as national coordinating counsel for a major chemical, oil and gas company in its asbestos litigation. He coordinates all discovery nationwide, assists in developing overall litigation and settlement strategy, and coordinates the activities of various local counsel who represent the client throughout the United States. Additionally, he serves as client representative to numerous joint defense groups and has been selected as chairman of several of those groups.

Mr. Cole represents drug and medical device clients and has litigated prescription drug and various medical device matters. Nelson Mullins has been selected by Pfizer Inc. as one of its primary counsel through the P3 (Pfizer Partnering Program) process, and Mr. Cole is the relationship partner for that client. At the present time he is also serving as the defendant liaison counsel in a pharmaceutical related MDL proceeding, which has been consolidated in Charleston. He also has represented the insurer of members of the American Psychiatric Association; in that role, he has served as defense counsel in a number of psychiatric malpractice cases, and he has handled physician malpractice cases for other clients.

Mr. Cole serves as counsel for different defendants in several class actions alleging both statewide and national classes. Mr. Cole also represents a major insurer in its extra contractual litigation throughout South Carolina.

Additionally, he has served as an advocate for many clients in alternative dispute resolution proceedings as well as in major settlement negotiations outside of a formal process. Primarily these matters involve mass torts and/or catastrophic injuries. Mr. Cole has negotiated and administered a number of settlements in mass tort cases with plaintiffs numbering from several hundred to more than 7,000.

He has been selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® in the area of Product Liability Litigation. He has also been listed in South Carolina Super Lawyers (2008-2009 editions) in three areas: Class Action/Mass Torts, Personal Injury Defense: Products, and Insurance Coverage.

Mr. Cole earned a Juris Doctor, cum laude, from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1974. During law school, he was a member of the Order of the Wig and Robe, Civil Rights Editor of The South Carolina Law Review, and Student Editor of The Journal of Law and Education. Mr. Cole earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Davidson College in 1971.