Coleman Cowan

Attorney and Emmy award-winning 60 Minutes producer Coleman Cowan began practicing law nearly three decades ago. He spent ten years as a trial attorney, winning significant results for his clients,¹ before his career path led him away from North Carolina courtrooms and into war zones, jungles, and mountaintops across the world. For the next decade, Coleman worked as a producer for 60 Minutes, traveling the world reporting and producing stories on war, politics, economics, and sports. The narratives he crafted of ordinary people facing extraordinary challenges won him multiple Emmy, Gracie, Murrow, Peabody, and Polk awards for broadcast journalism.

With a decade of adventure behind him, Coleman returned to his work as a trial lawyer in North Carolina, applying the same reporting and storytelling skills he developed at 60 Minutes to tell his clients’ stories.

“People often ask me why I would leave a successful career producing news stories from around the world. The answer is simple. I was at ‘60 Minutes’ for 10 years and had a lifetime of adventure during that time. But I wanted to get back to North Carolina, and back to the courtroom. I wanted to tell people’s stories and help decide right from wrong in a courtroom in front of a jury. I’ve been fortunate to have two interesting careers, which I’ve learned have many similarities. Being an effective trial lawyer is really about taking a complex body of information and turning it into a compelling story, which is exactly what I was doing at ‘60 Minutes.’ The only difference is my audience used to be millions of people around the world. Now, it’s 12 men and women on a jury.”

Results-driven and competitive

Like Coleman’s work in investigative journalism, whistleblowing cases require painstakingly detailed investigations to uncover wrongdoing and develop the evidence needed to present a False Claims Act case to the Department of Justice. Coleman uses his investigative skills and compelling story-telling aptitude to litigate complex, high stakes, multimillion dollar cases. In 2002, Business North Carolina Magazine recognized his legal accomplishments, naming him to their “Legal Elite”⁶ list for litigation.

A competitor by nature, Coleman has often taken his search for a challenge one step further by competing in dozens of triathlons, marathons, and ultramarathons, including Boston, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, The North Face Endurance Challenge Series 50-mile race, Badwater Cape Fear, and multiple Ironman triathlons.

Returning to his roots

Coleman earned a B.A. in Economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a J.D. with honors from Wake Forest University School of Law, where he was on the law review and won awards for Most Outstanding Advocate and Best Oralist. After 10 years as a litigator, Coleman left North Carolina to obtain a Master’s in Journalism from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He was a member of the inaugural Stabile Investigative Journalism Program at Columbia, graduating with honors.

After spending several highly-accomplished years as a documentary news producer in New York, Coleman returned to North Carolina in 2018 and uses his investigative and legal skills to help his whistleblower clients seek justice.

In addition to his work as a trial lawyer, Coleman is also an American Bar Foundation Fellow,⁵ North Carolina Middle District Civil Rules Committee member, and vice-chair of the North Carolina Bar Association’s Professional Vitality Committee. He is often asked to share his knowledge and experience in continuing legal education seminars and other speaking engagements.

⁵For information regarding the American Bar Foundation’s 1% of lawyers licensed to practice in each jurisdiction, visit www.americanbarfoundation.org/fellows.
⁶For more information regarding the standards for inclusion for Business North Carolina’s “Legal Elite” list, visit businessnc.com.