J. Thomas Cookson is a partner in the Miami office of Shutts & Bowen LLP, where he is a member of the Corporate Practice Group.
A Martindale-Hubbell AV®-rated attorney, Tom has been recognized among The Best Lawyers in America since 2009 and included on such lists as the South Florida Legal Guide’s Top Lawyers and South Florida Business Journal’s Best of the Bar. He has more than 30 years of experience structuring and negotiating complex business transactions, mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations, debt and equity financings, and securities offerings.
Tom served as a Law Clerk to Judge Albert Henderson in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit upon graduating from the College of William & Mary School of Law.
Credentials
Education
- College of William & Mary School of Law, J.D., 1983
- Order of the Coif
- William & Mary Law Review, Board of Editors, 1981-1983
- University of Virginia, B.A., with honors and distinction, 1979
Bar Admissions
- Florida
- Georgia
- New York
Court Admissions
- U.S. Supreme Court
Professional and Civic
- Member, Episcopal Diocese of Southeast Florida, Disciplinary Board
- Vice Chair, St. Philip’s Episcopal Foundation
- Past Chair, Southeast Florida Episcopal Foundation
- Past Chair, Coral Gables Community Foundation
News & Insights
News & Speaking Engagements
- “Loan Participation Agreements as Securities: Judicial Interpretations of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934,” William & Mary Law Review, Vol. 24, 1983
Blog Posts
Practice Areas
Accolades
- Martindale-Hubbell, AV® Rated
- The Best Lawyers in America®
- Corporate Law and Securities/Capital Markets Law, 2009-2025
- Banking and Finance Law, 2021, 2023, 2024, 2025
- Aventura Magazine, Top Lawyers, 2021
- Super Lawyers, Securities & Corporate Finance, Business/Corporate, and Mergers & Acquisitions, 2006-2016, 2018, 2019
- Florida Trend’s Legal Elite, Business Law, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022
- South Florida Legal Guide, Top Lawyer, 2009
- South Florida Business Journal, “Best of the Bar,” 2005
