
Portrayed by Craig Bierko
Jeffrey Coho was a brash and ambitious partner who moved from the New York office and was introduced, along with
Claire Simms, in episode
3x02 [New Kids On The Block]. He appeared in the regular cast until
3x15 [Fat Burner], when he left the firm.
Coho immediately made his ambitions clear by volunteering to handle the defense of Scott Little in the high-profile
Marcia Hooper murder case. He has been accused of caring more about making a name for himself than for the welfare of his clients.
Little was revealed about Jeffrey's background and private life. There's a strong suggestion in 3x02 that he and
Shirley Schmidt had a sexual encounter, presumably when she lived in New York, an occasion referred to again in
3x08 [Lincoln]. Though Shirley apparently had regrets about the incident, Jeffrey remained interested in her and claimed she was the real reason he moved to Boston.
Early side scripts for 3x02 hinted that he had also had a relationship with Claire, but this was not evident in the final version of the episode. In
3x06 [The Verdict], he revealed to
Barbara Little that he has one child, a daughter who lives with her mother.
Jeffrey seemed to have a reputation as being a ladies' man. Besides Shirley and Claire, Jeffrey's closest colleague in the Boston office was
Denise Bauer, with whom he worked on the Hooper trial. After initially expressing irritation at the arrival of a new partner, she grew to respect his legal abilities during the case. However, she rejected his advances in 3x06. In 3x11, Jeffrey approached Denise again, telling her that one of his New Years' resolutions was to "date you". Denise rebuffed him again, saying "I don't like you", singling out his "Elvis sideburns" as the main culprit while also admitting it was really "the whole package". After reconsidering, she surprised Jeffrey later in the same episode by suggesting they sleep together in a "friends with benefits" set-up.
Jeffrey's arrival was somewhat threatening to the male lawyers at the firm.
Brad Chase preemptively and forcefully staked his claim as "that guy", the one that all the women want to sleep with, while in
3x07 [Trick Or Treat]. In
3x08 [Lincoln], the two alpha males came to blows in the mens' room after Jeffrey made a forthright personal observation. Meanwhile,
Alan Shore, who bemoaned the fact that
Melissa Hughes left him to be Jeffrey's assistant, offered (perhaps in jest) to help Brad "take the new guy down". While Alan and Jeffrey never did interact much, Brad and Jeffrey's relationship did evolve into a full-blown rivalry. Although they worked together effectively to win the cell phone lightning strike case in
3x10 [The Nutcrackers], they continued to push each other's buttons whenever possible.