Harry F. Cole
(1949 – 2025)

Long-time communications attorney and FCBA member Harry F. Cole died on October 25, 2025, as a result of kidney cancer.  He was 76.  For the last 18 years of his career, before his retirement in 2020, Harry was a partner with Fletcher, Heald, Hildreth PLC, primarily representing clients in broadcast regulatory matters. 

Harry was born in Providence, Rhode Island.  He grew up around Narragansett Bay, spending summers in Jamestown and the rest of the year in Providence.  He taught himself how to play guitar and banjo and was in a band in high school.

Harry attended Amherst College and graduated in 1971, magnum cum laude.  His senior thesis, which won an award, was “Rock Music and Youth Culture in America 1960–1969.” 

After graduating from Amherst, Harry attended Boston University Law School, from which he graduated in 1974. 

Harry’s first position after law school was with the FCC as an Attorney-Advisor in what was then known as the Broadcast Bureau.

After almost two years with the FCC, Harry joined the law firm of Arent, Fox, Kittner, Plotkin & Kahn (now Arent Fox Shiff LLP).  In 1981, he left Arent Fox and, with former Arent Fox colleague Gene Bechtel, formed Bechtel & Cole, a partnership that lasted two decades.  After Bechtel & Cole, Harry joined Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth in 2001, where he remained until his retirement. 

Harry was part of the team that brought the seminal First Amendment case FCC v. Pacifica Foundation before the Supreme Court, defending the broadcast of comedian George Carlin’s “Seven Dirty Words” monologue. He represented broadcasters and litigated through the Supreme Court a Fifth Amendment-based affirmative action challenge to certain FCC policies, and he led the Fletcher Heald team which succeeded in relieving many broadcasters of the obligation of providing Social Security Number-based FRNs in their Ownership Reports (FCC Form 323).  He also launched Fletcher Heald’s blog and was its ‘blogmeister” until his retirement.

Harry wrote the Cole’s Law column which appeared periodically in Radio World magazine, and in 2007 he co-authored an article (“The Myth of the Localism Mandate”) in Catholic University of America’s CommLaw Conspectus which challenged the conventional wisdom that broadcasters are under any statutory or regulatory obligation to provide “local” programming.  He taught FCC Practice and Procedure at the Columbus School of Law at Catholic University and Civil and Criminal Procedure at Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia.

Throughout his career as an attorney, Harry remained active as a musician.  He kept playing and composing music, and fronting the DC bar band “The Fabulous Kamadebts” as singer and lead guitarist.  Harry’s other interests included baking, crossword puzzles, and rock ‘n’ roll trivia.

Fletcher Heald’s Co-Managing Partner, Frank Montero, described Harry as “a unique combination of intellect, wit and talent and one the best writers I have ever known, in or out of the legal profession.”

Harry is survived by his wife Laurie, their sons, Tucker and William (Wiley), and his brother, Francis Sessions Cole III.