Coon & Cole, LLC

Focus and practice areas

Coon & Cole, LLC handles legal work for businesses and individuals in Maryland. The firm's listed areas include business law, commercial litigation, real estate, bankruptcy, estates and trusts, and construction law. Debtor and creditor rights and cannabis matters also appear on the site.

The business side covers corporate organization, commercial transactions, disputes and business dissolution. That range tracks the full life of a company, from the paperwork that sets one up through the process that winds one down.

In my opinion, the mix reads as a deliberate one. Business formation, contracts, property and insolvency tend to surface for the same client at different points. A firm that keeps all four in house can carry a client through several of those points.

How the bankruptcy work is framed

The firm's bankruptcy page describes advising both businesses and individuals. It says the firm weighs whether bankruptcy or another form of debt relief fits a given case. That framing puts an assessment step ahead of the filing decision.

Coon & Cole describes Chapter 7 representation for consumers and businesses, and Chapter 11 reorganization or liquidation for businesses and individuals.

General context on these chapters

Chapter 7 is a liquidation. A trustee takes control of non-exempt property, sells it and distributes proceeds to creditors. Consumer filers typically pass a means test tied to state median income before they qualify.

Chapter 11 works differently. The debtor usually stays in possession of the business and proposes a plan to restructure debts. Creditors vote on that plan and a bankruptcy judge confirms or rejects it. The process runs longer than Chapter 7 and involves more court filings, disclosure statements and creditor committee negotiation.

The choice between them turns on whether an operating business has value worth preserving. None of this is a claim about how Coon & Cole handles any particular case. It's the general shape of the work the firm names.

How the team is built

The site names nine attorneys. David H. Cole and Zachary J. A. Coon are partners. Curtis C. Coon and Cara L. Herman are listed as attorneys.

Four attorneys hold Of Counsel positions: Katherine E. Bukowsky, Gary R. Greenblatt, Constance M. Hare and Marc E. Shach. David Baxter, Jr. is an associate attorney.

That's a large Of Counsel group relative to the partner count. Of Counsel arrangements usually mean an experienced attorney with an ongoing relationship to a firm, often working on a defined set of matters. For a firm covering this many practice areas, that structure gives it senior depth across several fields at once.

Katherine E. Bukowsky

Bukowsky's profile carries the most detail of any on the site. She concentrates in real estate law, commercial transactions, trademark law, commercial litigation and general business law.

Her client list includes business owners, lenders, landlords and tenants. She handles commercial real estate closings. She also works with financial institutions and lenders on loan documents, defaults and enforcement matters.

Bukowsky graduated from the University of Baltimore School of Law. She was admitted to the Supreme Court of Maryland in 2003, which puts her past two decades at the Maryland bar.

The lender-side work is worth noting. Loan documentation, default and enforcement sit next to the firm's bankruptcy and creditor rights practice. A firm doing both sees the same transaction from opposite ends of the table, at different times and for different clients.

Geography and reach

Coon & Cole keeps two Maryland offices. The main one is in Lutherville, in Baltimore County. The second is in Havre de Grace, in Harford County.

Those two counties sit along the I-95 corridor northeast of Baltimore. A Harford County presence puts the firm near the Circuit Court in Bel Air and within reach of the Cecil and Harford business communities. Maryland bankruptcy filings for both counties go to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Maryland.

Real estate and construction matters are strongly local. Recording, title and county land records vary by jurisdiction, and construction disputes often involve mechanic's lien deadlines set by state law. Having an office in each county is a practical answer to that.

What the record shows

The home page says the firm has operated for over 35 years. The site doesn't state an exact founding year, so the claim reads as a round figure rather than an anniversary date.

Thirty-five years places the firm's origins in the late 1980s or early 1990s. A Maryland business practice with that duration has worked through the early 1990s recession, the 2008 credit crisis and the pandemic period, each of which drove distinct waves of commercial bankruptcy and real estate distress.

As a reviewer, the thing I find most useful here is the alignment between the practice list and the attorney profile. Bukowsky's areas map onto four of the firm's six headline practice areas. That's a sign the practice list describes work the firm actually does.

What the site leaves open

Biographies for most of the named attorneys aren't published. Law schools, bar admission years and practice concentrations appear for Bukowsky and no one else. The firm publishes no case results, verdict figures or client counts.

The public record on the firm is thinner than its practice history. The named entity, the two office locations, the practice area list, and the nine attorneys are details a reader can check against the firm's own materials and public records. Everything else about the firm's history and performance sits outside the published record.

Who this fits

The client profile the site describes is a Maryland business. Corporate organization, commercial transactions, commercial property and construction all point at companies rather than individuals, though the bankruptcy page covers both.

A business owner facing a commercial lease dispute, a construction payment claim or a Chapter 11 decision would find the relevant practice areas listed here. So would a lender working through a defaulted loan. The estates and trusts practice extends the firm's reach to the personal side of the same client base, which matters when a closely held business owner starts thinking about succession.

Coon & Cole, LLC operates from Lutherville and Havre de Grace, names nine attorneys on its site, and lists business law, commercial litigation, real estate, bankruptcy, estates and trusts, construction law, debtor and creditor rights, and cannabis matters among its practice areas.