Two years ago, Stephen Cole reflected on his career as the vice president and assistant general counsel of Keurig Dr Pepper and was confident his best day at the company came after a summary judgment ruling resulted in a $925 million win against competitors Coca-Cola and BodyArmor.
But Cole, now a five-year veteran of KDP, has stayed busy ever since.
In July, the company’s legal team, along with outside counsel at Kirkland & Ellis, defeated a lawsuit from Reyes Coca-Cola Bottling that had been seeking more than $1 billion in damages over the ending of an agreement that had allowed Reyes to distribute Dr Pepper/Seven Up in California and Nevada.
“The last time I answered this question, I talked about a summary judgment win we had in Delaware in a major case,” Cole told The Lawbook. “I can now say that day has been supplanted, and it’s the day Jeremy [Fielding] called me to let me know we won the final summary judgment in this matter. Every litigator likes winning — especially because every litigator has plenty of experience losing — but this one felt special because of the very tangible impact it has on the company’s operations.”
Because of this work, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Dallas-Fort Worth Chapter and The Texas Lawbook have named Cole a finalist for the 2025 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for Business Litigation of the Year.
The finalists will be honored and the winners announced Jan. 29 at the 2025 DFW Corporate Counsel Awards ceremony at the George W. Bush Institute.
The Business Litigation of the Year award is one of three honors that recognizes in-house lawyers alongside their outside counsel. In 2022, Cole, alongside KDP Chief Legal Officer Anthony Shoemaker, its then-GC Jim Baldwin and outside counsel at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, won this award.
Last year brought another big win for the KDP legal team, as Russ Falconer of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher noted, Cole also successfully led the defense of litigation in Florida with a vendor where damages claims were nine figures.
“As a lawyer, Stephen has great instincts and impeccable judgment,” Falconer said. “He zeros in on what’s important and always figures out the best way to solve whatever problem he’s facing. Sometimes that means being aggressive, and sometimes that means playing the peacemaker. Sometimes it’s litigation; other times it’s a commercial solution. And whatever approach he’s taking, he does a great job of putting the other lawyers on his team in a position to succeed — both in-house and outside counsel.”
Cole made a point to praise fellow 2025 finalists, Trey Cox of Gibson Dunn and Sam Hardy, the head of litigation for Energy Transfer. Cox and Hardy were nominated for the work they did securing a $660 million jury verdict against Greenpeace in March. Cole called both lawyers, whom he worked with during his time at Lynn Pinker Hurst & Schwegmann, his “mentors.”
Premium Subscriber Q&A: Stephen Cole discusses the traits he seeks in outside counsel, what outside counsel need to know when working with him and more.
“Trey is an incredible leader who helped create the culture at Lynn Pinker where young litigators grow and thrive, and is continuing that work now at Gibson Dunn. Trey helped me understand that real growth and maturity comes from working outside your comfort zone, and he was and is always generous with his time and intentional about creating opportunities for younger attorneys,” he said.
“And Sam probably doesn’t even appreciate how much I learned from him in our time together at LPHS,” Cole said. “Very early in my career, when he was still a senior associate, he taught me what persuasive legal writing actually looks like. He also has an almost uncanny ability to argue convincingly from any side of an issue. Sam is the kind of lawyer you love to have on your side and don’t ever want to be against.”
Kirkland & Ellis partner Jon Kelley, who was part of the legal team that achieved success in the Reyes case, said Cole’s vision and execution were integral to the victory.
“Stephen’s crown jewel is the complete summary judgment win over Reyes Coca-Cola — a billion-dollar dispute that could have upended KDP’s national distribution strategy,” he said. “Stephen architected the forum play, framed the contract narrative and neutralized every franchise-law claim before a jury was ever seated. That victory didn’t just save future profits; it protected KDP’s distribution plans through future decades and showcased how litigation — when led by the right in-house counsel — can be a growth engine.”
Since Cole joined the KDP legal team five years ago, Kelley said the department has “become a model of modern, collaborative in-house practice — delivering results that are a testament to his strategy and vision.”
“He is deeply involved in every key decision in the cases he oversees, ensuring that legal and business objectives are always aligned,” Kelley said. “Stephen is a true collaborator, knowing when to defer to outside counsel’s expertise and when to draw a hard line to protect the company’s interests. Under Stephen’s leadership as head of litigation, his team’s collective successes consistently exceed what any individual could achieve alone.”
Fielding said, in his estimation, there’s no question that KDP deserves the Business Litigation of the Year award for “delivering a textbook legal victory with billion-dollar stakes” while orchestrating “flawless coordination between litigation strategy and commercial execution and, in so doing, demonstrated how a modern in-house department can protect enterprise value while elevating the entire organization.”
“It turned potential disruption into strategic advantage and left KDP stronger, nimbler and better prepared for the next challenge — exactly the qualities this award is designed to celebrate,” he said.
From Business Partner to Adversary
It was in February 2024 when Reyes Coca-Cola Bottling sent KDP a letter threatening to take the fight to court if the company chose not to renew the exclusive licensing agreement Reyes and KDP had inked in October 2017.
That letter was what ramped up Cole’s involvement in the dispute. And because of how important the case was to the company’s long-term strategic goals, he stayed “very hands-on” throughout the litigation, including making trips to California and Florida, helping the team with argument and deposition preparation and providing input on motions for summary judgment and other major briefing.
“Anytime someone makes an explicit threat of legal action against us, my team and I become centrally involved,” Cole said. “And not only had Reyes made that threat, but they also let us know that they were working with a litigator at Latham & Watkins, so we knew they meant business.”
By April, KDP had hired Kirkland & Ellis and filed a declaratory judgment action in Collin County district court, seeking a ruling that they were within their rights to not renew the agreement based on the plain terms of the contract.
Two days later, Reyes filed a lawsuit in California arguing Dr Pepper had breached their agreement, seeking more than $1 billion in damages. Reyes also alleged Dr Pepper committed fraud — pointing to a five-year plan entered into by marketing employees for both parties — by leading it to believe the contract would be extended, which it said barred Dr Pepper from terminating the deal.
Both sides had made their positions clear in the dueling lawsuits, and the stakes were immense.
“Winning meant securing the nearly $1 billion in future profits and taking a huge step towards KDP’s key corporate initiative of scaling its distribution assets,” Fielding said. “Losing meant not only forfeiting this massive future profit stream, but also upending KDP’s corporate initiative, impairing future product launches and casting doubt on KDP’s contractual rights throughout its complex distribution network. In short, KDP’s legal department understood that winning in the courtroom was inseparable from protecting day-to-day operations and securing the long-term growth of the company.”
Cole said in his view, there was only one piece of evidence that mattered in the case: the contract. He was confident that KDP’s arguments would prevail.
“We believed all along that the contract gave us a clear right to not renew Reyes’ license agreement at the end of its term. And here we had a counterparty that was saying, basically, ‘I don’t care what the contract says,’” he said.
“Ultimately, we decided that we needed a court to set the parties straight on what rights the contract conferred. So rather than sit on our hands, we went ahead and filed a declaratory judgment action in Texas, asking the court, essentially, to enforce the literal words of the contract and rebuff Reyes’s effort to erase the parts of the contract it didn’t like.”
Keurig Dr Pepper’s Chief Legal Officer Anthony Shoemaker told The Texas Lawbook in July that he had hired Kirkland & Ellis to partner with in the litigation because of the firm’s specific skillset.
“We wanted a firm with a strong litigation team based in Dallas, since we knew we would need to litigate the case here, but that also had an expertise in California franchise law issues, since Reyes had raised that claim,” he said. “There are lots of great Dallas litigation firms, and lots of firms with strong franchise practice, but Kirkland was one of the few that offered both.”
There was far more for the KDP team to train their attention on aside from the fights inside the courtroom. As Fielding explained, the legal department “focused on a parallel commercial-coordination track — meeting and coordinating regularly with supply chain, sales, marketing and various executives to preserve brand momentum regardless of litigation outcomes.”
“This dual focus on law and logistics ensured that the courtroom battle never hindered customers from finding a cold Dr Pepper on the shelf,” he said.
In its bid to bring an end to the California case, KDP argued that in the agreement central to the dispute, it spelled out that litigation has to take place in Texas, that Texas law applies to the case and that it had the right to terminate the agreement with Reyes prior to its October 2025 expiration date.
Reyes contended that because it was considered a franchisee under California law, the Texas forum selection clause wasn’t enforceable and that Texas law didn’t apply. Reyes alleged Dr Pepper had violated the California Franchise Relations Act by terminating the agreement and owed Reyes damages for the lost deal.
The judge in California determined Reyes wasn’t considered a franchisee in this case and dismissed the suit in September 2024.
Back in Texas, Reyes filed counterclaims, asking the court for an injunction that would bar Dr Pepper from ending the agreement and for damages for the value of the deal.
Reyes was dealt another blow in December 2024 when Collin County District Judge Christine Nowak granted Dr Pepper partial summary judgment, holding Texas law applied to the case and that Dr Pepper had a right under the agreement not to renew it.
The final blow came June 30, when Judge Nowak signed a summary judgment order in favor of Dr Pepper disposing of Reyes’ affirmative defenses.
Fielding gave Cole a call to deliver the news.
“On that particular day, I was in the car with my kids after having picked them up from school,” Cole said. “I got a call from Jeremy and had a feeling he had either some really good news or really bad news. I still remember the shocked look on my kids’ faces when I reacted to the news. It was a great day.”
Trial, which was slated to last four days, had been scheduled to begin July 7, and the parties were in full-blown trial preparation mode when the summary judgment ruling came down.
“I’m grateful that we got a judge who was thoughtful, deliberate and — at the end of the day — held these two very sophisticated parties to the exact bargain they struck,” Cole said.
Cole called the decision to partner with Fielding, Kelley, Michael Kalis and the rest of the Kirkland legal team on this case “one of the best choices I’ve made in my entire career, hands down.”
“The dynamic team they brought together — both in Texas and California — executed flawlessly on our legal strategy,” he said. “Getting to play a major role in helping the company execute on a significant corporate strategy — expanding and further scaling our own distribution system — is not something that in-house litigators get to do every day. I’m really proud of this one.”
Of course Cole, who also doled out compliments for his fellow nominees for this award, had some kind words for opposing counsel in the Reyes case, too.
“I do want to compliment Reyes on one very good decision they made — hiring Jeff Tillotson,” he said. “Jeff was my boss when I first joined Lynn Pinker [then Lynn Tillotson Pinker & Cox] back in 2014. As everyone knows, he’s an amazing lawyer — a creative thinker and an unmatched advocate. It would’ve been an absolute pleasure to watch Jeff at work, if only he hadn’t been arguing against us!”
For Fielding, the win against Reyes is distinguishable from other victories because of “the manner in which it was achieved.”
“KDP deliberately fostered a ‘one-team’ environment that blurred the lines between inside and outside counsel,” he said. “The KDP legal team’s performance embodies the award’s core purpose — to honor collaborative excellence between in-house and outside counsel.”
“But it is the collective effort of KDP’s legal department — guided by Anthony’s strategic oversight, fueled by Stephen’s litigation acumen and operationalized by their seamless collaboration with KDP’s commercial teams and its outside counsel at Kirkland — that truly merits recognition.”
Recipe for Success
A Mississippi native, Cole grew up in and around Jackson, where most of his family still live. His father worked in the environmental, health and safety department for a road construction company, his mother was a homemaker, and his stepdad was a veterinarian.
There are no lawyers in his family, and when Cole went to Mississippi State University, he pursued a career in sports broadcasting, doing sports reports for a radio station and also serving as the announcer for the school’s softball team. It was near the end of his college days when Cole started considering a career in the law after being intrigued talking to some friends who were in law school.
“I started reading more about the law, then took the LSAT and did decently enough to open some doors I hadn’t previously considered, and I’ve never looked back,” he said.
He graduated from MSU in 2007 with a bachelor’s degree in communication and is a 2011 graduate of the Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. From there, he did clerkships with the Mississippi Supreme Court and a federal judge in the Eastern District of Missouri.
Cole was an associate in Locke Lord’s Dallas office for about a year and a half before moving to Lynn Pinker in March 2014. He stayed there for three years before going in-house for Remington Hotels, a move he made in part because of his desire to go from “knee deep” to the “deep end.”
“One thing I loved about working at a law firm was all the different kinds of businesses that you get to know,” he said. “Usually, that means getting a crash course in your client’s business, and you’re able to get knee deep and stay there for a year or two or however long your case is going on. Then you have a new client and a new business to learn and eventually you forget most of the things from your crash course.”
But being in-house, “you get thrown into the deep end of your client’s business.”
“You aren’t just working with other lawyers. You get to work every day alongside the sales and marketing teams, R&D, the supply chain professionals and of course all the other corporate support functions,” he said. “You become intimately familiar with a single business, its people and what makes it tick in a way that you simply can’t do as outside counsel.”
The pandemic was especially rough for the hotel industry, and in October 2020 Cole made the move to KDP.
“What drew me here is what keeps me here — the people,” he said. “We have a fantastically talented legal team, not just here in Dallas but in Massachusetts, Canada, Mexico and elsewhere. People that aren’t just great lawyers, but also people you want to be around.”
On paper, Cole’s job at KDP is to serve as the head of litigation, legal operations and corporate compliance and report directly to Shoemaker, the general counsel. But if you ask lawyers who know him and have worked with him, the job description doesn’t do justice to what Cole brings to the office.
“Stephen combines two traits that often don’t exist together in a single individual,” said Chris Patton of Lynn Pinker. “He can distill complex legal issues in language that business leaders actually understand, without oversimplifying. At the same time, he is not paralyzed when the facts are incomplete or the path forward is uncertain. That combination makes him incredibly effective as an in-house lawyer.”
Kelley pointed to Cole’s ability to orchestrate complex responses to complex problems when discussing his strengths as head of in-house litigation.
“He turns inside counsel, outside counsel and business executives into a single, integrated strike team,” Kelley said. “Whether he is shifting a billion-dollar fight from California to Texas or prepping a KDP manager for testimony, he keeps every player on the same page and every decision tethered to the company’s broader objectives. The result is litigation that advances strategy rather than merely surviving it.”
Looking Ahead
Even with two major litigation victories under his belt in five years at KDP, Cole has maintained a focus on the future, paying close attention to a fast-changing regulatory environment and keeping KDP in a position to maintain and grow its place in the beverage industry.
“KDP is in the midst of a fairly transformative time right now, as we look to close our biggest acquisition in the company’s history then prepare to separate our coffee and soda businesses,” he said. “Navigating a major change like that is always challenging, even when it’s fun and exciting at the same time.”
Those who know Cole said the likelihood of another banner year for him and the KDP legal team is high.
“Some of Stephen’s successes are public and measurable, but many of the most important ones never appear in a headline,” Patton said. “He has a unique ability to manage internal dynamics, align stakeholders and defuse problems before they become disputes. Those behind-the-scenes wins require judgment, credibility and trust.”
“And they are often more valuable than any single courtroom result.”
Fun Facts: Stephen Cole
- Favorite book: Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff. It taught me a lot about how much history is shaped by who gets to write that history.
- Favorite music group: The Drive-By Truckers. But, really, I should be answering about my favorite podcast, because that’s all I listen to these days. [His current recommendations are “Acquired” and “The Rest is History.”]
- Favorite movie: Probably Goodfellas — I can never turn that one off.
- Favorite restaurant: With the family, it’s hibachi (and fried rice). But if I can get a babysitter, any nice steak house (and we have plenty to choose from in DFW)
- Favorite beverage: During the day, any KDP drink will do (plug for RC Cola Zero Sugar!). At night, a good Texas bourbon.
- Favorite vacation ever: Not sure about “ever,” but we took our daughter to San Antonio this year after she learned about Texas history in school, and we had a blast. It’s a great spot for a short family trip.
- Hero in life: There are so many people I look up to, but my late grandfather has been on my mind a lot recently. He modeled an approach to the world that was filled with love, grace and compassion. Especially in the moment we’re living in now, we should all try to follow his example.