ALEXANDRIA, VA, June 04, 2019 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Marquis Who's Who, the world's premier publisher of biographical profiles, is proud to present Ronald S. Cooper with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. An accomplished listee, Mr. Cooper celebrates, a legal career extending over 50 years, and has been recognized for scholarship, professional achievements, leadership qualities, and public service. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Mr. Cooper's career encompassed the inception and basic development of federal employment discrimination law. In both government positions and in private practice he played a key role in that development.
Following law school, he was selected to serve as law clerk by Judge Walter Pettus Gewin, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit based in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. At the time the Fifth Circuit's jurisdiction included Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida, placing it at the epicenter of civil rights litigation. Although significant employment discrimination litigation had not yet developed, the cases there included critical constitutional challenges to segregation of schools and public facilities as well as traditional labor law cases.
He next served in the Office of the Solicitor at the United States Department of Labor in Washington, D.C., briefing and arguing cases under the Fair Labor Standards Act in the federal courts of appeals. In the Solicitor's Office he participated in what would be the first of many cases before the United States Supreme Court, a constitutional challenge to the application of the FLSA to state and local government employees.
From the Solicitor's Office, he was recruited to join a team of lawyers at Steptoe & Johnson in Washington defending AT&T against charges of race and sex discrimination brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, The United States Department of Justice, and the United States Department of Labor in a rate-making proceeding before the Federal Communications Commission. At the time AT&T (including the regional Bell System operating companies, Western Electric, and Bell Laboratories) was the largest private employer in the world, and the resulting settlement remains one of the largest in history.
In additional cases for AT&T, he negotiated settlements of discrimination claims involving management employees, and claims that the companies failed to comply with the original settlement decree. He assisted the State of California in Supreme Court cases involving constitutional challenges to the treatment of pregnancy and childbirth under employee leave and benefit plans. He also participated in similar Supreme Court cases brought under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
His career in private practice continued at the same firm and included representation of Fortune 100 companies in employment discrimination litigation at the trial and appellate level throughout the country. He also represented employers and their trade associations with respect to employment discrimination issues pending in the federal regulatory agencies and in congress.
He successfully defended claims against a major chemical manufacturer that it violated Title VII by excluding women from jobs that involved exposure to air-borne lead particles that would be injurious to an unborn child. For insurers and their trade associations he defended claims that it was unlawful for benefit plans to recognize the substantial difference in the life expectancy of males and females in establishing the price or benefit levels for their products.
For employers and trade associations, Mr. Cooper also litigated critical issues under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (challenges to voluntary and involuntary force reductions), the Equal Pay Act (efforts to assert 'comparable worth' compensation claims), and the Americans with Disabilities Act (differentiation in benefits for mental versus physical disabilities). He also represented both employers and employees in restrictive covenant and executive compensation cases.
He advised congressional committees during major employment discrimination legislative initiatives, including amendments to the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, The Older Workers Benefit Protection Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act. With respect to the proposed Civil Rights Acts of 1991, he testified in the House of Representatives opposing, on constitutional grounds, features of that bill that would have been given retroactive effect. When similar legislation was subsequently enacted as the Civil Rights Act of 1992 these features had been removed.
Mr. Cooper also led a number of confidential internal investigations of allegations of serious misconduct by management employees. These investigations typically concerned very senior corporate officers, and some involved allegations of sexual harassment.
Mr. Cooper also represented employers in labor standards matters, including major projects subject to the Davis Bacon Act which mandates the payment of prevailing area wage rates, as determined by the U.S. Department of Labor, to workers on federally assisted construction projects. Notably, he successfully prosecuted an appeal to the Department's Wage Appeals Board on behalf of the National Science Foundation that resulted in wage rates that permitted the construction of the Very Large Array Radio Telescope on the high plains of the New Mexico desert.
Mr. Cooper has been a fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers since 1997. He was also a member of the American Bar Association's Section of Labor and Employment Law where he served as Management Chair of its International Labor Law Committee. He represented both U.S. and foreign employers with respect to their international employees. Notably, in Oracle Corp. v. Fallotti, he established that a U.S. employer could maintain the application of domestic law to the terms of its stock option plan for employees working abroad. His success at Steptoe owes much to N. Thompson Powers a true pioneer in the practice area and to the team of exceptional lawyers he assembled there.
For ten years, Mr. Cooper was an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University School of Law where he taught a graduate seminar on employment discrimination law. For thirteen years, he served on the Metropolitan Board of Directors of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Washington, which operates 21 clubs serving more than 30,000 children in the Metro Washington area. He has also served on that organization's Executive Committee, and as its General Counsel.
In 2006, he was nominated by President George W. Bush and confirmed by the Senate to be General Counsel of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In that position he directed a staff of 200 lawyers in litigation in the federal district courts and courts of appeals to enforce the principal federal employment discrimination laws. He also coordinated with the Solicitor General representation of the agency before the Supreme Court. His term at EEOC included twelve Supreme Court cases in which the agency was a party or appeared as amicus curiae.
In 2008, he returned to a litigation practice at Steptoe until his retirement in 2015. He has continued to serve individually as a consultant and mediator in employment matters.
Born, raised, and educated in Athens, Georgia, Mr. Cooper received his AB degree in the honors program of the University of Georgia, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He earned his J.D. degree from the School of Law in 1969. He is grateful for the mentorship of Professor J. Ralph Beaird, his labor law professor who steered him toward the Labor Department in Washington, as well as Robert N. Leavell, an inspirational securities law professor who broadened his aspirations.
Mr. Cooper has lived in Alexandria, Virginia for 49 years. He has been married to the former Carolyn Vardine for 52 years. They have two adult daughters, Stephanie J. Massey and Jessica K. Cooper, and one granddaughter Lily K. Massey.
In recognition of outstanding contributions to his profession and the Marquis Who's Who community, Ronald S. Cooper has been featured on the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement website. Please visit www.ltachievers.com for more information about this honor.
About Marquis Who's Who®
Since 1899, when A. N. Marquis printed the First Edition of Who's Who in America®, Marquis Who's Who® has chronicled the lives of the most accomplished individuals and innovators from every significant field of endeavor, including politics, business, medicine, law, education, art, religion and entertainment. Today, Who's Who in America® remains an essential biographical source for thousands of researchers, journalists, librarians and executive search firms around the world. Marquis® now publishes many Who's Who titles, including Who's Who in America®, Who's Who in the World®, Who's Who in American Law®, Who's Who in Medicine and Healthcare®, Who's Who in Science and Engineering®, and Who's Who in Asia®. Marquis® publications may be visited at the official Marquis Who's Who® website at www.marquiswhoswho.com.
# # #