Cote worked in private practice as a litigator in New York City from 1976 to 1977 at Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle, and again from 1985 to 1991 at Kaye Scholer.
As Chief of the Criminal Division, Cote supervised approximately 140 lawyers and overhauled the USAO's training program for young attorneys.
Cote was nominated by President Bill Clinton on April 26, 1994, to a seat vacated by Mary Johnson Lowe.
February 22, 2018) In a formal opinion, Judge Cote described attorney Richard Liebowitz as a "copyright troll".
[6] In December 2013, Cote approved a settlement of the antitrust claims, in which the publishers paid into a fund that provided credits to customers who had overpaid for books due to the price fixing.
Aleynikov was convicted following jury trial on the claims which were not dismissed and later sentenced to approximately eight years in prison.
2d 42 (2010): In a series of summary-judgment rulings, Cote reviewed and applied a number of legal concepts relevant to construction litigation -- including "your work" insurance exclusions, no-damages-for-delay clauses, the economic-loss doctrine, the viability of claims for negligent misrepresentation under New York law against architects and construction managers, and the categories of permissible claimants under performance and payment bonds—to novel and complex factual circumstances arising out of the $300 million construction of a new vertical campus for Baruch College.
2010): Cote, sitting as the rate court under the 1941 consent decree between the United States and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers ("ASCAP"), established a reasonable license fee for the public performance of ASCAP compositions via wireless and Internet-based audio and audiovisual services provided by MobiTV.
2010): Following a bench trial, Cote concluded that the defendant, an Internet-based subscription service which aggregated and sold stock recommendations to investors, was liable to the plaintiffs—three investment firms which issued the stock recommendations that the defendant marketed to its clients—under a theory of "hot news misappropriation" under New York law.
2009): Cote, sitting as the rate court under the 1941 consent decree between the United States and ASCAP, concluded that the playing of a ringtone on a mobile phone did not constitute a "public performance" subject to licensing fees.
2d 577 (2007): In a drug-trafficking case involving an alleged conspiracy to import, possess, and distribute khat, Cote denied the post-trial motions by defendants following their conviction at jury trial.
2007): Cote denied a motion to dismiss by the defendant county, finding that the plaintiff had successfully alleged that the county had violated federal law by accepting federal funding for affordable housing and then misrepresenting the nature and success of its efforts to further such housing.
2006): Cote, granting summary judgment to the defendant—a Canadian energy company sued under the Alien Tort Claims Act for alleged violations of international law in the Southern Sudan—described the elements of theories of conspiracy and aiding-and-abetting liability under international law.
2003): In large part, Cote denied the motions to dismiss a class-action complaint brought by investors against officers, directors, accountants, underwriters, and outside analysis of WorldCom, Inc. United States v. Frank, 8 F. Supp.
1998): Cote upheld the federal Death Penalty Act of 1994, in the first challenge made in the Second Circuit to the constitutionality of that statute.
2011): Cote sentenced hedge fund portfolio manager Chip Skowron to five years in prison for insider trading.