Ron Cohen founded Cohen Dowd Quigley in 1991 after an outstanding career as one of the first partners of the Streich Lang law firm. Ron had a clear vision of CDQ’s present and future professional profile. CDQ would be a small, boutique law firm, specializing in complex commercial litigation. CDQ’s goal was to embrace the toughest cases and the most interesting, demanding clients, and to hire only top lawyers who can play in the street. CDQ’s guiding principles are sound, practical judgment, and unparalleled excellence in our legal research, written product, and oral advocacy. CDQ recognizes and honors its ethical responsibilities while exercising every bit of our fabric to benefIt our clients.
Ron chose his partners carefully. Dan Dowd joined the firm in 1993, following Ron from Streich Lang and bringing his razor-sharp analytical mind, masterful oral and written advocacy, and formidable managerial skills. Dan became CDQ’s Managing Partner in 1998 and its President in 2008. Dan Quigley left a successful tenure at Brown & Bain to join CDQ in 1997. His legal skills, particularly in the intellectual property, real estate, and antitrust areas of practice, are well-renowned. Every member of the CDQ team brings a unique perspective and add value to CDQ’s representation of any client.
For more than thirty years, CDQ has been successful in its model, as it has maintained a small, tight-knit group of lawyers and staff who know each other, and respect each other and our profession. CDQ’s team-based approach provides its clients with the best representation that could be offered by a large litigation firm, but treats clients as part of the family. Welcome to CDQ.
Founded in 1991
50 people in their team
Business Litigation, primarily of commercial disputes, is the primary focus of CDQ’s practice. Our lawyers, all of whom are litigators, have vast experience in the resolution of civil disputes. CDQ has represented clients in disputes involving nearly every type of civil dispute, including breach of contract, commercial transactions, securities, construction-related matters, antitrust, insurance (defense, coverage and bad faith), labor and employment issues, products liability, commercial torts (fraud, tortious interference, negligent misrepresentation, aiding and abetting, etc.), defamation and invasion of privacy, racketeering, professional liability, business dissolution, creditors’ rights, principal/agent, fraud, civil rights, constitutional disputes, environmental, special actions (statutory and discretionary), licensing/technology disputes, software design and implementation, copyright and trademark actions, judgment enforcement and nearly every type of real estate matter (including foreclosure, fraudulent conveyance, brokerage disputes, zoning, inverse condemnation/regulatory taking, nuisance, waste, trespass, landlord/tenant, specific performance and rescission/constructive trust). CDQ also handles appeals involving these matters. CDQ is intensely active in counseling its clients on the implementation of internal dispute avoidance procedures and safeguards to reduce the potential for litigation and to minimize any potential exposure. Further, we are firmly committed to the use of early and strategic ADR procedures (e.g. mediation) to resolve disputes efficiently and before they take on a life of their own.
Legal disputes, especially those involving state actors, often involve an analysis of whether a particular statute, rule or action comports with the requirements of the Arizona Constitution and the United States Constitution and whether the conduct at issue infringes upon a constitutionally protected right. CDQ has frequently represented clients in such disputes. For example, Ron Cohen led a CDQ team in a dispute regarding whether the Maricopa Association of Governments engaged in an unconstitutional taking of property through its handling of an application for approval of a water reclamation facility. CDQ attorneys have also successfully represented clients against allegations of unconstitutional conduct such as discrimination, retaliation, and the infringement of due process rights, arising from a variety of situations, including an arrest for the violation of a protective order, the termination of employment, and expulsion from a public university. CDQ lawyers have also represented clients in real property disputes involving assertions of regulatory and de facto takings by governmental actors.
CDQ has experience in a wide variety of employment issues in both the public and private sectors. CDQ lawyers have handled numerous employment-related disputes and have expertise in advising and representing clients in, among others, the following areas: breach of employment contract, breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing in connection with employment issues, age discrimination, gender discrimination, sexual harassment, misappropriation of trade secrets, misappropriation of corporate opportunities, unfair competition, breach of fiduciary duty, OSHA, wage and hour, alleged violations of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, whistle-blower claims, administrative grievances, non-competition and non-solicitation covenants, defamation, and formal and informal employment grievances. One CDQ team recently obtained a multi-million dollar judgment, including an award of treble damages and attorneys’ fees, on behalf of two individuals whose former employer withheld wages owed and falsely accused them of misappropriating confidential information and stealing customers. CDQ has also successfully defended multiple employers in disputes with former employees, frequently through early dispositions short of trial. CDQ attorneys have also served as independent investigators in connection with claims of discrimination, harassment and mismanagement within a state university.
CDQ has extensive experience in litigating intellectual property matters involving copyright, trademarks, trade names, patents, trade secrets, and confidential and proprietary information. Disputes in which CDQ has successfully represented its clients have included a former university student’s demand for materials relating to technology that she claimed to have developed and was seeking to patent, multi-million dollar litigation involving the development and licensing of gas sensor technology, the protection of trade secrets and defense of patent claims, and ownership claims over intellectual property, including a pending patent application and resulting patent.
CDQ has ample experience in a wide variety of real property disputes, including eminent domain proceedings, inverse condemnation, zoning, use permits, special permits and site plans, quiet title claims, easements and licenses, nuisance, trespass, and covenants. CDQ has represented both landowners and developers in multiple, complex, property-related disputes involving real property all over Arizona. It is well versed in the issues that can arise in connection with negotiating, documenting, and enforcing large-scale real estate transactions. Recent cases have involved, for example, the City of Scottsdale’s Downtown Infill Incentive Program, the City of Tempe’s Government Property Lease Excise Tax and master developer agreements. CDQ’s Dan Quigley has repeatedly been honored for his work in real estate litigation by Best Lawyers, and was named Lawyer of the Year for Litigation – Real Estate for 2022.
