James Cole Jr. was named deputy secretary of the United States Department of Education. He has been serving as general counsel at the department and will continue to serve in that role. As deputy secretary, Cole will have manage the department’s My Brother’s Keeper Task Force.
Before joining the Department of Education, Cole was deputy general counsel at the U.S. Department of Transportation. In 2004 he was named a partner of the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz in New York City.
Cole is a graduate of the University of Illinois. He earned a juris doctorate at the University of Chicago, where he was comment editor of the University of Chicago Law School Roundtable.
