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**Cooke Named Best Lawyers' Bet-the-Company Litigator of the Year**

M. Dawes Cooke, Jr., a Barnwell Whaley attorney at law

November 8, 2010

Charleston, S.C. – Dawes Cooke, a member attorney of Barnwell Whaley Patterson & Helms, LLC, has been named the 2011 Best Lawyers’ “Bet-the-Company Litigator of the Year” for Charleston. After more than a quarter of a century in publication, Best Lawyers is designating “Lawyers of the Year” in high-profile legal specialties in large legal communities. Only a single lawyer in each specialty in each community is being honored as the “Lawyer of the Year.”

Best Lawyers compiles its lists of outstanding attorneys by conducting exhaustive peer-review surveys in which thousands of leading lawyers confidentially evaluate their professional peers. The current, 17th edition of The Best Lawyers in America (2011), is based on more than 3.1 million detailed evaluations of lawyers by other lawyers.

Steven Naifeh, President of Best Lawyers, says, “We continue to believe – as we have believed for more than 25 years – that recognition by one’s peers is the most meaningful form of praise in the legal profession. We would like to congratulate M. Dawes Cooke, Jr. on being selected as the ‘Charleston, SC Best Lawyers Bet-the-Company Litigator of the Year’ for 2011.”

M. Dawes Cooke, Jr. is a prominent South Carolina attorney who specializes in complex civil litigation. He is also a much sought after mediator and arbitrator. Cooke holds a Martindale-Hubble AV rating (the highest), and he is listed in The Best Lawyers in America in the areas of bet-the-company litigation, alternative dispute resolution, commercial litigation, and personal injury litigation. He is also listed in the 2008, 2009 and 2010 editions of Super Lawyers as one of the top 25 attorneys in the state of South Carolina and is one of only four South Carolina Super Lawyers listed in the category of medical malpractice defense.
A native of Beaufort, South Carolina, Cooke received his undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia where he majored in philosophy and graduated with high distinction. He earned his J.D. from the University of South Carolina (cum laude), where he served as clerk of court for the Society of Wig and Robe and as symposium editor for the University of South Carolina Law Review. In 1993, he received an Honorary Doctor of Law degree from The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina.

Cooke served as a law clerk for the Honorable Sol Blatt, Jr., U.S. District Judge for South Carolina and as a governor’s appointee to the South Carolina Joint Legislative Automobile Insurance Study Committee and is a fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers. He is President of the Charleston Chapter of the American Board of Trial Lawyers, served as past president of the Charleston County Bar Association and past member of the South Carolina Bar Board of Governors. He currently serves as chairman of South Carolina’s Commission on Judicial Independence and Impartiality and is a member of the Defense Research Institute, and the International Association of Defense Council (IADC).

In addition to his leadership roles within the legal community, Cooke is active in civil society. He is president-elect of the East Cooper Community Outreach, on whose board he has served since its inception 21 years ago and was honored with ECCO’s 2008 Stone Soup Award for outstanding service. Additionally, he has served as president of the East Cooper Breakfast Rotary Club and vice chairman of the Rotary District 7770 Gift of Life Board of Directors.

Established in Charleston in 1938, Barnwell Whaley Patterson & Helms, LLC, serves and counsels businesses and professionals in the state of South Carolina and beyond. Widely respected for their work in complex litigation matters, the firm’s 16 members and associates focus on the areas of intellectual property, civil litigation defense, professional malpractice defense, construction law, business law and products liability defense.

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Firm backgrounder

Established in Charleston in 1938, Barnwell Whaley Patterson & Helms, LLC, serves and counsels businesses and professionals throughout South Carolina and beyond.

With over seven decades in business under the same banner, the firm is highly respected for its work in complex civil litigation in state and federal courts at both trial and appellate levels.

The firm’s 15 members and associates focus on intellectual property protection, civil litigation defense, professional malpractice defense, construction law, business law and products liability defense.

Barnwell Whaley is a full-service firm of seasoned lawyers supported by an experienced staff of paralegals, secretaries, medical and science professionals, engineers, chemists, law clerks, accounting and administrative personnel totaling 21 staff members. Though the firm may be considered “boutique” in size, the depth and diversity of its professional team allows it to handle complex civil litigation without the encumbrances and overhead of larger firms.

The firm serves and counsels businesses in Charleston, the Carolinas and throughout the country, and is engaged as counsel in several international matters involving intellectual property.

Sample clients include Sawgrass Technology, Maybank Industries Group, The Medical University of South Carolina, the S.C. State Ports Authority, The Citadel (including its defense in the landmark case attempting to admit women to the institution in 1995), Traveler’s Insurance, CNA Insurance, and Lloyds of London, among others.

One of the central practice areas for Barnwell Whaley is its insurance defense practice, which represents numerous insurance carriers and self-insured businesses in the state. The firm is frequently retained to defend insured individuals and businesses who have been sued in various types of negligence actions, including professional liability and malpractice, products liability, construction defects, vehicular accidents, premises liability and other insured risks.

The common thread that connects all of Barnwell Whaley’s practice areas is complexity. Barnwell Whaley’ attorneys have been described by their peers as "lawyers' lawyers." The firm is frequently called by other attorneys to help at trial and is often selected to handle the most difficult cases in a company’s portfolio.

Barnwell Whaley is dedicated to obtaining the best possible outcome for its clients. Often that means carefully and thoroughly preparing a case for trial and then trying the case to a decision. However, there are times when a thoughtfully negotiated settlement is the best interest of the client both emotionally and economically. In any case, the firm always puts the needs and best interests of its clients first.

Barnwell Whaley is located on Daniel Island in Charleston, S.C.

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