About Lance Cooper

Lance Cooper is the founding partner of The Cooper Firm. He practices in all of the firm's practice areas, with an emphasis on product liability cases involving automobile design and manufacturing defects.

Prior to forming the firm in March 1998, Mr. Cooper was a partner with the law firm of Cooper Jones & Cooper where he represented plaintiffs in substantial personal injury and wrongful death cases. Mr. Cooper has been lead counsel for plaintiffs in a large number of civil jury trials, including trials against General Motors, Ford Motor Company, Continental General Tire, Toyota, and the Department of Transportation. He has successfully prosecuted hundreds of cases and has received numerous multi-million dollar jury verdicts and settlements.

Mr. Cooper's professional accomplishments have been recognized by his peers. His trial skills and experience are confirmed by his membership in the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA), an exclusive, invitation-only group reserved for the most experienced trial lawyers across the nation. He has also risen to leadership positions in various attorney-led organizations. He served as the 2002-2003 President of the Georgia Trial Lawyers Association and is a past President of the Cobb County Trial Lawyers Association. He has also served on the Board of Trustees of the Cobb County Bar Association.

Mr. Cooper is frequently asked to speak to attorney organizations and has done so on topics such as effective trial strategies and recognizing automobile product liability cases. He has also co-authored articles on maximizing damages in catastrophic injury cases and proving up other similar incidents at product liability trials.
Mr. Cooper received his law degree from Emory University in 1989, and while in law school, he was a G. Joseph Tauro Scholar and an editor of the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy. He received his bachelor's degree in political economics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1985.

Mr. Cooper is a member of the State Bar of Georgia and the State Bar of California and is admitted to practice before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. He is also a member of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, Georgia Trial Lawyers Association, and Cobb County Trial Lawyers Association.

Mr. Cooper lives in Powder Springs, Georgia with his wife Sonja and their five children.

Areas of Practice
Products Defects
Medical Malpractice
Motor Vehicle Accidents -- Plaintiff
Motor Vehicle Defects
Personal Injury -- Plaintiff
Bar Admissions
California, 1989
Georgia, 1990

Education
Emory University School of Law, Atlanta, Georgia
J.D. - 1989
Honors: G. Joseph Tauro Scholar
Law Journal: Editor, Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, 1988 - 1989
Boston University School of Law, Boston, Massachusetts
1986-1988
University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California
B.A. - 1985

Representative Cases
Georgia Pipe Co. v. Lawler, 262 Ga.App. 22, 584 S.E.2d 634 (2003)
Beam v. Kingsley, 255 Ga. App 715 (Ga.App. 2002)
Coker v. DaimlerChrysler Corporation, 220 F. Supp. 2d 1367 (N.D. Ga. 2002)
Watkins v. Ford Motor Company, 190 F.3d 1213 (11th Cir. 1999)
Kapsch v. Stowers, 434 S.E.2d 539, 209 Ga.App. 767 (Ga.App. 1993)
Good Ol' Days Downtown, Inc. v. Yancey, 434 S.E.2d 740, 209 Ga.App. 696 (Ga.App. 1993)
Classes/Seminars
Trapdoors of Premises Liability Claims, ICLE of Georgia, 1995
New Laws Seminar, Georgia Trial Lawyers Association, 1999
Staying Ahead of the Discovery Game - How to Manage Discovery in Complex Cases, Georgia Trial Lawyers Association Annual Seminar, 2001
Post Sale Duty to Warn/Recall - Current Georgia Law, ICLE of Georgia, 2003

Professional Associations and Memberships
State Bar of Georgia, Member, 1990 - Present
State Bar of California, Member, 1989 - Present
Georgia Trial Lawyers Association, Member, 1990 - Present
Georgia Trial Lawyers Association, President, 2002 - 2003
Georgia Trial Lawyers Association, Executive Vice-President, 2000 - 2002
Georgia Trial Lawyers Association, Vice-President, 1996 - 2000
Georgia Trial Lawyers Association, LawPac, Chairperson, 1998 - 2000
Cobb County Bar Association, Member, 1990 - Present
Cobb County Trial Lawyers Association, Member, 1993 - Present
Cobb County Trial Lawyers Association, President, 1996 - 1998
American Board of Trial Advocates, Member, 2004 - 2005