Mr. Cowan is currently on a leave of absence.

Don Cowan is a highly regarded and unusually diverse trial lawyer who practices in the area of litigation with a special emphasis on commercial cases, intellectual property, products liability and medical products. His experience includes a wide variety of jury cases in state and federal courts in North Carolina and other jurisdictions.

A past president of the North Carolina Bar Association, Mr. Cowan is currently an Adjunct Professor of Trial Practice at Duke University School of Law. He also currently serves on the Criminal Justice Act panel for the Middle District of North Carolina, is regularly appointed as trial counsel, and has recently concluded a federal death penalty case. In addition, Mr. Cowan regularly lectures to North Carolina state trial judges on trial practice and evidence. He presented a seminar paper to the American College of Trial Lawyers annual meeting on Daubert and Federal Rule of Evidence 702 issues, lectures annually to North Carolina Fellows of the American College of Trial Lawyers on recent federal cases involving federal procedure and evidence, and has presented a focus group mock trial of a product liability case at annual meetings of both the Defense Research Institute and the Product Liability Advisory Council.

Mr. Cowan is a former member of the American Bar Association House of Delegates and was president of Legal Services of North Carolina. The North Carolina Bar Association’s Litigation Section honored Mr. Cowan as the second recipient of the prestigious Advocate’s Award, which was created to recognize “superstars” of the Litigation Section and legal profession. He was named Best Lawyers’ 2012 Bet-The-Company Litigation Lawyer of the Year and Appellate Practice Lawyer of the Year. Best Lawyers’ also named Cowan 2009 Greensboro Product Liability Litigator of the Year. He was named to the Super Lawyers list for 2009 and 2012 for outstanding achievement in his practice areas by Law & Politics, which publishes the annual North Carolina Super Lawyers Magazine.

Mr. Cowan was named a Litigation Star in the 2009 edition of Benchmark Litigation for cases involving intellectual property, products liability, and medical products and for his defense of Fortune 500 companies in antitrust and class action claims.

Mr. Cowan has represented Fortune 500 companies in class action, antitrust cases, while at the same time representing criminal defendants charged with capital crimes. Mr. Cowan has tried a wide variety of cases in state and federal courts including:

Trials to a jury verdict cases

• Rhone Poulenc v. Monsanto and DeKalb -- Patent infringement case tried to jury verdict in United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina
• Pack v. Pike Electric -- Defamation case tried to jury verdict in North Carolina state court
• Central Heating and Air Conditioning v. Lee Construction Company -- Breach of federal construction contract case tried to jury verdict in United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina
• State of North Carolina v. Kenneth Boyd and State of North Carolina v. Antone Johnson -- Two death penalty cases tried to jury verdict in North Carolina state court
• United States v. Allen, 159 F. 3d 832 (4th Cir. 1998) -- Federal criminal drug case in which Mr. Cowan served in defense as the trial and appellate counsel
• Brown v. Lee, 319 F. 3d 162 (4th Cir. 2003)

Medical device and pharmaceutical products cases

National trial and coordinating counsel, Panacryl Suture multi-district litigation; trial counsel for Sofamor Danek in multi-district litigation cases involving back screws; trial counsel for Medeva and Fisons Pharmaceutical in fen/phen multi-district litigation cases; trial counsel for Sulzer Orthopedics in hip implant litigation; trial counsel for Wyeth in thimerosal-containing-vaccine litigation.

Trademark litigation

Trial and appellate counsel for Pinehurst Resorts, Resorts of Pinehurst, Inc. v. Pinehurst National Corp., 238 F. 3d 414 (4th Cir. 2000) (Text in 2000 WL 1690286) and Resorts of Pinehurst v. Pinehurst National Corp., 148 F. 3d 417 (4th Cir. 1998)

Antitrust litigation

Trial counsel for major tobacco manufacturer, DeLoach v. Phillip Morris, 206 F.R.D. 551 (M.D.N.C. 2001)

Mr. Cowan has an undergraduate degree from Wake Forest University (B.A., 1965) and obtained his J.D. from Wake Forest University School of Law (1968). He has served multiple terms on the Wake Forest University Board of Trustees and as president of the Wake Forest Law Alumni Association. Mr. Cowan has received numerous additional honors including:

• Named Greensboro Product Liability Litigator of the Year for 2010 by Best Lawyers
• Recognized in the 2009 edition of Chambers USA for his general commercial litigation work
• Named to Woodward/White’s “The Best Lawyers in America” for more than 20 years in the areas of antitrust law, bet-the-company litigation, commercial litigation, mass tort litigation, personal injury litigation, and product liability litigation
• Appointed by North Carolina Governor Mike Easley to the State Judicial Council
• Received the North Carolina Association of Defense Attorneys’ 2006 Award for Professional Excellence for being “truly outstanding in exemplifying sustained, excellent service to defendants, to the Bar, and to the community”
• Inducted into Business North Carolina’s Legal Elite Hall of Fame in 2010. Named to Legal Elite for patents, 2003; antitrust, 2004-2009; and litigation, 2004-2006, 2008; also named Legal Elite top litigation attorney for 2009
• Recognized by Law & Politics Magazine as a North Carolina Super Lawyer in the area of business litigation every year from 2006 to 2011, and as one of the “Top 10” attorneys in North Carolina in 2006, 2007, 2010 and 2011
• Recognized by Chambers and Partners, United Kingdom, as one of North Carolina Leaders in litigation from 2005-2008
• Received the 2008 Greensboro Bar Association Pro Bono Award for representation of five death penalty cases

Mr. Cowan has a peer review rating of AV in Martindale-Hubbell.

Admissions

• North Carolina, 1968

Professional associations and memberships

• North Carolina Bar Association, 1968-present
• Fellow and former member of Board of Regents, American College of Trial Lawyers
• Product Liability Advisory Council
• The American Law Institute
• Past President, North Carolina Bar Association
• Fellow, American Academy of Appellate Lawyers
• American Board of Trial Advocates
• Permanent Member, Fourth Circuit Judicial Conference
• Chief Justice Joseph Branch Inn of Court