Robert Cole majored in philosophy at Harvard and graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 1952. He received his LL.B., magna cum laude, in 1955 from Harvard Law School, where he was book review editor of the Harvard Law Review. He clerked for Justice Sherman Minton of the U.S. Supreme Court and then worked in Washington, D.C., in private practice with Edward Bennett Williams and in the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force. He was associated with the Boston firm of Foley Hoag & Eliot before coming to Berkeley Law.
Professor Cole joined the Berkeley Law faculty in 1961 and took emeritus status in 1993. From 1997 to 1998 he served as associate dean of the J.D. Program. He has taught constitutional law, torts, jurisprudence and legal ethics at Berkeley Law and has been a visiting law professor at Northwestern, Harvard and Banaras Hindu University in India.
Education
A.B., Harvard University (1952)
LL.B., Harvard University (1955)