About Ed Cottingham

For over 30 years, Ed Cottingham has represented clients locally and nationwide on a wide variety of legal issues.

His firm, the Cottingham Law Firm, is in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, and focuses on general civil litigation, personal injury, and wrongful death.

Ed was born in Bennettsville, South Carolina. He met his wife, Lisa, while stationed in California and together they came home to raise their family in the Lowcountry. Ed is a proud grandfather to four grandchildren and two on the way.

Ed believes no two cases are the same, and that each one deserves passion, focus, and commitment from start to finish. He offers a free consultation and a candid evaluation of your situation, whatever it may be.

Camden Military Academy

Graduated as battalion commander, 1976

Wofford College

Bachelor’s degree in Government

University of South Carolina School of Law

Joint MPA/JD, 1984

Ed served 12 years in the United States Army, on active duty and in the Army Reserve, and rose from Captain to Lieutenant Colonel.

Active duty

After law school, Ed was accepted into the Army’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps. He served as a Captain in the 7th Light Infantry Division at Fort Ord, California.

During his three-and-a-half-year tour, he was a prosecutor and later defense counsel in dozens of trials by courts-martial and administrative elimination boards.

He deployed in support of Operation Golden Pheasant, the response to Nicaraguan attacks within Honduras. There he led a legal assistance team that negotiated and resolved legal issues with Honduran government officials.

The Gulf War

Ed stayed in the Army Reserve after active duty. His detachment was activated and deployed to Saudi Arabia in support of Operation Desert Shield/Storm.

As chief trial counsel for the Army Central Command (ARCENT), he prosecuted the only court-martial in ARCENT during the war. His conviction of an Army doctor who had abandoned his duties while seeking conscientious objector status is recounted in the book Judge Advocates in Combat.

On his return he was promoted to Major. He later graduated from the Command and General Staff College and was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, then resigned his commission to focus on his growing family and his law practice.

Honors

Bronze Star

Gulf War service

Meritorious Service Medal

7th Infantry Division

Army Commendation Medal

7th Infantry Division

Ness, Motley

Ed joined Ness, Motley, a nationally renowned asbestos firm, in 1989. He spent his first year and a half there representing victims in ground water contamination cases.

In 1991 he moved to the firm’s asbestos property damage team, helping building owners nationwide recover millions of dollars in asbestos cost recovery actions. He became a Member of the firm in 1998 and stayed on the team through 2002. His clients included:

• City of Wichita
• State of West Virginia
• New York/New Jersey Port Authority (World Trade Center, LGA and JFK airports)
• Transamerica Pyramid, San Francisco
• State Farm Worldwide Headquarters
• A college and university asbestos property damage class action

Cottingham Law Firm, 2004–present

Ed opened the Cottingham Law Firm in 2004. There he managed a successful lawsuit against Lockheed Martin on behalf of hundreds of residents and victims of ground water contamination in a small Florida community next to a former manufacturing site.

He has also represented clients in:

• Automobile accidents
• Medical malpractice
• Asbestos disease and mesothelioma
• Contract disputes

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