Education

Union College
BA 1985

American University
JD 1988

Steven E. Cole

Steve Cole is a founding partner of Leclair Korona Giordano Cole LLP. He regularly represents businesses and individuals in complex disputes in federal and state courts, in arbitration, and before governmental agencies. Steve concentrates his practice in the areas of securities, ERISA, shareholder, and partnership litigation. His practice also includes trade secret and intellectual property litigation, employment litigation, and construction disputes.

Prior to forming Leclair Korona Giordano Cole LLP with his partners, Steve was a partner in the firm of Wolford & Leclair LLP with which he had been associated since 1995. Steve began his career as a litigator in 1989 as a Trial Attorney with the Tax Division of the US Department of Justice, where he received the Tax Division’s Outstanding Attorney Award in 1993.

Steve has represented clients in numerous trials and arbitration hearings, including arbitration hearings before the Financial Institution Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and its predecessors.  He is AV rated by Martindale-Hubbell and listed as a Super Lawyer of Upstate New York in the area of commercial litigation. 

Steve has lectured and written articles in the areas of civil litigation, tax litigation and securities issues.  Mr. Cole is also the President of the Board of Farmworker Legal Services of New York, a non-profit legal services provider serving indigent farm workers in New York State.

Steve’s recent accomplishments include:

• Obtaining a defense verdict in a jury trial on behalf of a client who was accused of being an accomplice in a Ponzi scheme that involved day trading of stocks

• Obtaining a substantial award for an employee retirement plan against its registered investment advisor for breach of fiduciary duty under ERISA after a multi-day private arbitration involving in-depth expert testimony on the use of leveraged inverse investment vehicles and market timing in a pooled employee retirement fund

• Negotiating a substantial settlement on behalf of clients bringing claims against a FINRA broker-dealer after one day of hearing, as well as negotiating numerous other pre-hearing settlements on behalf of other clients on securities claims

• Having successfully obtained temporary restraining orders and preliminary injunctions in favor of the Firm’s financial services and other clients, in a variety of different contexts, to protect those clients from ongoing harm caused by former employees

• Obtaining through settlement of claims the return of a six-figure advance made by a client to a private company, after having argued that the company’s solicitation of funds violated the Securities Act of 1933

• Obtaining a six-figure judgment after trial against the spouse of a judgment debtor on the basis of the spouse’s liability under New York partnership law.