GARY L. COLE AIA, ESQ. PROFESSIONAL BIOGRAPHY
Professional Licensure
Attorney: Illinois (1998) / Florida (2001)
Architect: Illinois (1993)
Professional Education
Bachelor of Architecture / University of Illinois at Chicago (1988)
Master of Architecture / University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1992)
Juris Doctor / Loyola University Chicago School of Law (1998)
PROFESSIONAL BIOGRAPHY SUMMARY
Gary L. Cole AIA, Esq. is a Chicago based Illinois and Florida licensed construction, real estate development, historic preservation and accessibility attorney (26 years), and an Illinois licensed architect (31 years).
Though he maintains his Illinois architectural license and membership with the American Institute of Architects (AIA), he has practiced law exclusively and continuously for the past twenty-six (26) years with Chicago law firms such as Winston & Strawn, LLP and Seyfarth Shaw, LLP. He also practiced with the West Palm Beach, Florida law firm of Gunster Yoakley & Stewart, P.A.; as in-house finance, leasing and real estate development counsel for Florida developer The Sembler Company; and, currently with his own firm, The Law Firm of Gary L. Cole AIA, Esq.
He is one of the few dozen individuals in the United States possessing licenses in both law and architecture. As an attorney, he serves the Chicago area, Central and Southern Illinois, with the ability to serve as an attorney in Florida where he also holds a law license and has practiced extensively.
His legal practice includes construction law, commercial law, real estate law, historic preservation law, and accessibility law. He also serves as consulting counsel and expert witness for attorneys in need of his combined legal and construction experience.
Drawing on his legal, architectural and construction expertise, he has become a successful construction, commercial and real estate arbitrator and mediator for the American Arbitration Association (AAA), serving the greater Midwest, and with the ability to serve as arbitrator and mediator in the fifty United States. He has used his real estate finance experience to serves as a pro bono mediator for Chicago’s Center for Conflict Resolution, helping low-income borrowers and banks find resolutions to mortgage default issues.
Mr. Cole received his Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Architecture in 1988, and his Master of Architecture degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s Graduate School of Architecture – Historic Preservation Option in 1992, where he returned to serve as a Visiting Associate Professor of Architecture from 1993 – 2001.
He spent his third undergraduate year studying architecture at the L’Ecole D’Architecture Et D’Urbanisme De Versailles, France. He returned to Europe in law school and studied international law at the Loyola Center for International Studies in Rome, Italy.
After several years of practicing architecture with Chicago and Central Illinois architectural firms, a State of Illinois regulatory agency and operating his own architectural practice, he returned to Chicago to attend the Loyola University Chicago School of Law where he received his Juris Doctor degree and became an Illinois attorney in 1998. He both passed the Florida Bar and obtained his Florida law license in 2001.