Daniel Cole

About Daniel Cole

Companies come to Daniel Cole when they want their advertising and marketing on solid legal ground, whether they're getting a campaign ready to launch, having it reviewed, or defending it, and whether it runs in print and broadcast or online. Contests, car ads, packaging and labels, social media programs and online stores all land on Daniel's desk. Daniel is also Office Managing Partner for Gowling WLG in Toronto, and works with clients' in-house lawyers and executives to keep risk down and their marketing processes running smoothly.

Science came before law. Daniel's first degree was a bachelor of science in molecular biology and genetics, and graduate school, a master's and then a PhD, looked like the next step. It didn't feel right, though, so Daniel took a year off after finishing the degree, and the research done during that year is what turned up intellectual property law. Osgoode Hall Law School followed, with an LLB in 2007 and a call to the Ontario bar in 2008. Daniel previously led the firm's advertising practice group and has also taught at Osgoode as adjunct faculty.

Contest work is where Daniel's practice met software. Paying hundreds or thousands of dollars in legal fees to draft rules for a giveaway of $250 in swag made little sense to Daniel, so the answer became a program clients could use to check a new contest against the law in short order. Daniel brought the idea to the technology company Neota Logic and built an online application that walks a user through questions on who can enter, where the contest runs and what the prize is, then produces a set of rules and flags anything needing a closer look. It's now called Contest Creator and is in use among the firm's clients; RBC worked with Daniel's team on a version customized for the bank. Precedent included it in its 2021 Innovation Awards. (Fees as of October 2026.)

Daniel writes and speaks often on advertising law and social media, for groups such as IT-CAN, the Brand Activation Association, Lexpert and the Association of Corporate Counsel, and shares author credit on LexisNexis Canada's Advertising and Marketing Law in Canada. Best Lawyers named Daniel its 2025 Lawyer of the Year for Advertising and Marketing Law in Toronto.