About M. Dawes Cooke
M. Dawes Cooke Jr. is an attorney based in Charleston, South Carolina, with over four decades in the field in complicated civil litigation. He specializes in medical malpractice defense, appeals, binding dispute resolution, facilitated negotiation, authorities and administrative law, insurance defense, and legal malpractice. Admitted to the South Carolina Bar in 1979, Cooke has been a member of Barnwell Whaley Patterson & Helms, LLC since finishing his clerkship with the Honorable Sol Blatt Jr. in 1980.
Cooke earned his Juris Doctor cum laude from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1979. He served as Clerk of Court for the Society of Wig and Robe and as Symposium Editor of the University of South Carolina Law Review. He holds a Bachelor of Arts with excessive difference from the University of Virginia, obtained in 1976. Throughout his career, Cooke has held numerous leadership positions within the legal network. He served because the President of the South Carolina Bar from 2018 to 2019 and has been a member of its Board of Governors since 2003. He is also a beyond president of the Charleston County Bar Association and the Charleston Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates.
Additionally, Cooke has been acknowledged by his friends, being named the primary attorney in South Carolina by Super Lawyers in 2014, 2015, and 2016. In addition to his litigation practice, Cooke is a certified mediator and arbitrator, often serving in these roles and lecturing on alternative dispute decision. He has been indexed in The leading attorneys list in America in various classes, including bet-the-organization legal proceedings, commercial litigation, health care legal proceedings, medical malpractice law for defendants, personal damage litigation for defendants and plaintiffs, binding dispute resolution. Mediation. Best Lawyers has named him the Mediation Lawyer of the Year, the Arbitration Lawyer of the Year, the Bet-the-Company Litigator of the Year, and the Personal Injury Litigation Litigator of the Year. Cooke is also lively in public service work.
He is a founding member and past president of the board of directors of East Cooper Community Outreach and has served at the board since its inception in 1989. He has been honored with ECCO’s Stone Soup Award for outstanding service. Additionally, Cooke has served as president of the East Cooper Breakfast Rotary Club and as vice president of the Rotary District 7770 Gift of Life Board of Directors. He is a former Rotarian of the Year. Cooke's experience and management within the area of law, combined together with his commitment to community service, make him a distinguished determine in Charleston's legal network.
