Our Commitment To Our Clients
“The Cope Firm will follow the law and highest professional ethics while honoring an overriding commitment to treat our clients as each of us would want to be treated; with dignity, respect, and compassion. We realize that property disputes, especially those involving one’s home, are intensely unsettling, so we will zealously advocate for and be sensitive to our client’s peace of mind.”
JOHN COPE • FIRM FOUNDER
ATTORNEY JOHN COPE
John Cope has concentrated his 25-year practice in real estate title litigation after beginning his legal career as a seven-year felony prosecutor in Tarrant County where Cope gained extensive trial experience that includes 50 jury trials of charges such as drug possession and delivery, sexual assault, child abuse, and non-death penalty capital murder. After leaving prosecution, Cope spent several years with a civil litigation firm focusing on real estate title defense and related litigation. Cope founded his own law firm in 2012. He is often retained by highly respected title insurers to represent homeowners and lenders, and frequently represents settlement agents in disputes arising from real estate transactions.
Cope is a 1992 graduate of The University of Texas School of Law where he received a Dean’s Achievement Award in Insurance Law. In addition to his broad experience as an attorney, Cope is a former senior real estate lending officer who managed mortgage originations and specialized in residential interim construction.
ATTORNEY MICHAEL MARCONI, of counsel
Michael Marconi is a trial lawyer with over 27 years of proven experience. A 1992 graduate of The University of Texas School of Law, Michael began his trial practice that same year as an associate in the antitrust and securities litigation section of Gardere & Wynne. Before launching his own firm, Michael was a partner at several well known Texas based law firms including nationally acclaimed litigation powerhouse, McKool Smith PC. Michael has tried to verdict numerous commercial cases in both court and arbitration proceedings. Throughout his career, Michael has been involved in some of the highest profile cases in the history of American jurisprudence including both the Enron and Allen Stanford litigation. Michael was responsible for directing the efforts of a large McKool Smith trial team and its supporting outside professionals working on behalf of the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of Enron Corporation. Those efforts culminated with the recovery of well over $100 million for the Enron Estate.
Notwithstanding his significant experience and success with cases that would qualify as “complex” and “high stakes” by any measure, Michael is equally comfortable and passionate about trying more conventional commercial, employment and intellectual property matters in an efficient and cost-effective manner. Michael has extensive experience in both federal and state court litigating disputes relating to real estate transactions, partnership matters, contracts, trade secrets, non-competition agreements, fraud in commercial transactions and business divorces.
As a natural extension of his experience handling sophisticated commercial disputes, Michael has coordinated internal investigations on behalf of clients both with respect to compliance issues relating to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act as well as in connection with Department of Justice investigations into allegations of illegal price fixing in violation of the Sherman Act. In addition, Michael has represented clients contesting workplace citations before OSHA and has also appeared as counsel in proceedings before the Internal Revenue Service. Michael regularly advises clients with respect to risk management and litigation avoidance practices.
By way of personal background, Michael lived overseas for sixteen years in Spain, Italy and Sweden before graduating from high school and is fluent in both Spanish and Italian. Michael graduated summa cum laude from Boston College in 1985. While at Boston College, Michael received an Army R.O.T.C. scholarship and was also inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa national honor society. Upon graduation from Boston College, Michael was commissioned as an officer in the United States Army and after completing the United States Army Field Artillery Officer Basic Course and Airborne School, Michael was assigned to the 2nd Armored Division at Fort Hood, Texas where he served on active duty for four years before receiving an honorable discharge in August of 1989.