Eric Cottle is an experienced trial attorney and litigation partner in the firm’s New York and Pittsburgh offices who focuses his practice in a variety of areas, including commercial disputes and the manufacturing and technology industries. Eric has extensive trial experience and has successfully argued cutting edge legal issues before various tribunals and courts in hearings and at trial with great success. He represents clients across the country in multiple jurisdictions and in high volume and high-stakes litigation. Along with litigating and arbitrating commercial disputes, consumer product defect claims, including the defense of personal injury/wrongful death actions involving various consumer products, complex industrial machinery and electrical equipment, and toxic tort claims, including the representation of companies in asbestos, silica, and lead pigmentation matters, Eric advises clients in several key areas, including managing risk and developing and implementing company-tailored solutions to complex legal issues that align with the client’s current and long term business objectives. Understanding that litigation is not the answer to every dispute, Eric works with his clients to resolve disputes through arbitration, mediation, or alternative dispute resolution techniques when they are an appropriate means of promoting the client’s business objectives.
Eric's litigation and risk management experience extends to the industries of commercial and consumer products, industrial and commercial coatings, metal manufacturing and fabrications, heavy-duty industrial port machinery and off-shore products, energy and technology.
Prior to joining K&L Gates, Eric was a partner at a Pittsburgh-based law firm where he focused his practice on a wide range of commercial disputes and consumer litigation, including unfair competition, employment litigation, fraud and deceptive and misleading acts, class actions, multidistrict and multinational litigation, and products liability.
Prior to embarking on his legal career, Eric worked as an analyst for an asset based company that provided an alternative source of funding to new and growing companies and as an account executive in commercial lines for a major insurance carrier where he interpreted key provisions of insurance policies and provisions for commercial clients involving general commercial liability and construction defects.
- Pittsburgh Legal Diversity & Inclusion Coalition, elected board member and treasurer, 2019 to present
- Vice Chair, Allegheny County Bar Foundation, 2020-2021 Financial Campaign
- Metropolitan Black Bar Association, elected to board of directors, 2019 to present
- The National Black Lawyers Top 100, executive committee, 2019 to present
- Adams Street Foundation, board member, 2018 to present
- Duquesne University School of Law Alumni Outstanding Achievement Award, 2011
- President, Homer S. Brown Law Association, 2007-2008
- Allegheny County Bar Association Board of Governors, elected, 2002-2007
- Carnegie Library Board of Directors, 2002-2006
- Family Services of Western Pennsylvania, Board Member, 2007-2008
- Speaker, “Laying the Groundwork for Law School Success,” Duquesne University School of Law, Pittsburgh, PA (2019)
- Speaker “Diversity & Inclusion in the Legal Profession,” BLSA, Mid-Atlantic Academic Retreat, University of Pittsburgh, PA (2019)
- Panelist, Uber ATG “Employee Inclusion Week,” Uber ATG, Pittsburgh, PA
- Speaker, DALS Conference, “Alternative Theories for Lung Cancer Claims,” Nashville, TN (2018)
- Speaker, DALS Conference, “Trial Tactics,” Las Vegas, NV (2017)
- Speaker, DALS Conference, “Preparing the Corporate Representative for Trial,” Las Vegas, NV (2016)
- Speaker, Perrin -- “Review of New York Asbestos Decisions From The Defense Perspective,” New York, NY (2015)
- Moderator, Corporate Counsel Women of Color, “Effective Law Department Management and How to Develop a Best-In-Class Law Department,” Atlanta, GA (2015)
- Speaker, DRI -- “Preparing the Corporate Representative For Trial and Rule 30(b)(6),” Miami, FL (2014)
- Speaker, Perrin – “Litigating Asbestos Cases in Today’s Economic Environment,” New York, NY (2011)
- Speaker, Harris Martin – Pennsylvania Asbestos Litigation Conference, Philadelphia, PA (2010)
- Speaker, HB – Northeast Judicial Forum on Asbestos, New York, NY (2009)
- “Expert Witness Answer Book 2019,” Practising Law Institute, Co-author and editor, May 2019.
- “Expert Witness Answer Book 2017,” Practising Law Institute, Co-author and editor, May 2017.
- “Expert Witness Answer Book 2016”, Practising Law Institute, Co-author and editor, April 2016.
- “Expert Witness Answer Book 2015,” Practising Law Institute, Co-author and editor, May 2015.
- “Expert Witness Answer Book 2013”, Practising Law Institute, Co-author and editor, May 2013.
- “Expert Witness Answer Book 2012”, Practising Law Institute, Co-author and editor, February 2012.
- Mentioned, "A Rich Legacy of Diversity," Duquesne Lawyer Magazine, February 2022.
- "Ill. Jury Awards Man's Estate $3.5M For Mesothelioma Death," Law360, 15 December 2021
- "20 People to Know in Law,” Pittsburgh Business Times, 2 June 2021.
