About Litigation & Dispute Resolution Blog

The Litigation & Dispute Resolution Blog delivers current legal developments, trends, cases, verdicts and settlements affecting businesses in Tennessee and across the country. This blog is an important tool for us to regularly connect with clients, businesses, and lawyers to provide useful information concerning business and commercial litigation. Our goal is that this blog will be a resource for business owners, in-house counsel, entrepreneurs and others who are interested in commercial litigation and business law.

The business litigation lawyers at Thompson Burton, PLLC are passionate about partnering with our clients to resolve their most contentious and complex disputes. We work hard to understand your business to deliver successful litigation strategies and advice. The firm represents clients in a wide range of litigation matters, including:

• Contract Disputes & General Business Litigation
• Disputes among Business Owners/Partnership Disputes
• Multi Level Marketing (MLM)/Direct Sales Litigation
• Trade Secret, Non-Compete and Non-Solicitation Disputes
• Franchising & Distributorship Litigation
• Employer/Employee Disputes
• Real Estate & Construction Litigation
• Local Counsel Engagements

This web page is edited and maintained by Cole Dowsley, who is a Partner at Thompson Burton PLLC.

Cole is a commercial litigator who has extensive experience resolving business-related disputes in a wide variety of industries and legal issues. No matter the industry or nature of the dispute, his goal is to create and execute litigation strategies that serve his clients’ business interests. Cole’s practice includes handling trials and appeals in state and federal court, in addition to alternative dispute resolution forums, such as mediation and arbitration. Cole has served as counsel to clients in courts and arbitration forums across the country, including Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, New York, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. Cole was selected as a Mid-South Rising Star by Super Lawyers Magazine for 2014.

Cole’s litigation practice includes representing companies and individuals in various business disputes, including breach of contract, partnership disputes, fraud, real estate/construction disputes, theft of trade secrets and securities violations. A significant portion of his litigation practice is devoted to the representation of network marketing companies and top distributors in lawsuits concerning cross-recruiting, non-competition, non-solicitation, violations of policies and procedures, trade secrets, sales organization raiding and defamation. He has also represented networking companies and individuals in proceedings brought by regulatory agencies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, Federal Trade Commission and Tennessee Securities Division.

Cole’s recent representative matters include:

• obtaining advantageous settlement for business owner in “business divorce” with former business partners;
• negotiating successful settlement for top network marketing distributor in case involving claims of cross-recruiting and violations of policies and procedures;
• enforcing direct sales company’s policies and procedures and agreements against former distributors;
• representing direct sales company in lawsuit against another direct sales company involving business disparagement, defamation and interference with contract;
• securing judgment against individual on personal guarantee of commercial loan promissory note; and
• negotiating terms of employment agreements and non-compete agreements for highly compensated executives;

Cole received his law degree from the University of Tennessee College of Law, where he served on the Editorial Board of the Tennessee Law Review. He obtained his undergraduate degree from the University of Tennessee, graduating magna cum laude, with a B.S. in Business Administration, majoring in accounting.

Cole is a proud resident of Franklin, Tennessee where he lives with his wife, Nicole, along with their two dogs. Away from the office, Cole enjoys riding his bicycle on the back roads of Middle Tennessee and snow skiing in Utah.

Bar Admissions:

• Tennessee
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
• U.S. District Court Middle District of Tennessee
• U.S. District Court Eastern District of Tennessee
• U.S. District Court Western District of Tennessee

Representative Cases:

• Lewis v. Humboldt Acquisition Corp., 681 F.3d 312 (6th Cir. 2012)
• Lewis v. Humboldt Acquisition Corp., 634 F.3d 879 (6th Cir. 2011)
• Barna v. Preston Law Group, 2012 WL 1965615 (Tenn. Ct. App. 2012)
• Black v. Sussman, 2011 WL 2410237 (Tenn. Ct. App. 2011)
• Akers v. Heartland Dental Care, Inc., 2011 WL 1322781 (M.D. Tenn. 2011)
• Turner v. Steriltek, Inc., 2010 WL 744519  (Tenn. Ct. App. 2010)
• Minias v. Historic Hotels of Nashville, LLC, 2008 WL 2437734 (M.D. Tenn. 2008)

Professional & Community Associations:

• Defense Research Institute (DRI) – Commercial Litigation, Young Lawyers and Professional Liability Committees
• Williamson County Chamber of Commerce

Speaking Engagements:

• Piercing the Corporate Veil in Tennessee: What Your Business Clients MUST Know, M. Lee Smith Publishers, August, 2014