Name Charles Cooper Role Attorney | Education University of Alabama | |
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What is absolute immunity? [POLICYbrief]
Charles 'Chuck' J. Cooper (born 1955) is an appellate attorney and litigator in Washington, D.C., where he is a founding member and chairman of the law firm Cooper & Kirk, PLLC. He was named by The National Law Journal as one of the 10 best civil litigators in Washington.
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Cooper has more than 25 years of legal experience in government and private practice, with numerous cases in trial and appellate court. He has argued several cases before the United States Supreme Court.
Biography
Cooper was born in 1955 in Birmingham, Alabama. He attended local schools and received his B.A. business degree in 1974 from the University of Alabama. He earned his J.D. degree in 1977 from the University of Alabama Law School. He was editor-in-chief of the Alabama Law Review and ranked first in his class. He passed the bar in Alabama and Washington, DC. He had two clerkships with judges. From 1977-78, Cooper clerked for Judge Paul Roney of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. From 1978-79, Cooper clerked for Justice William H. Rehnquist of the United States Supreme Court.
A member of the Republican Party, Cooper started working in 1981 in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, DC. In 1985 he was appointed as an Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel, United States Department of Justice during the Reagan administration. At a lunch at the Old Ebbitt Grill with other administration officials, he saw documents showing the administration's role in the Iran–Contra affair of 1986.
After his government service, in 1990 he entered private practice in the office of McGuire Woods. He worked there until co-founding Cooper & Carvin, now known as Cooper & Kirk, in 1996. His practice is concentrated in constitutional, commercial, and civil rights litigation.
Cooper led the legal team for the defendant-intervenors in Hollingsworth v. Perry, defending California Proposition 8 in 2008, which banned same-sex marriage in the state. He argued this case before the US Supreme Court.
Charles has been retained by Attorney General, Jeff Sessions for counsel in response to the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections.