Mr. Cooper is Professor of the Practice at McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University where he teaches Business Law. On January 1, 2024, he retired from Beacon Building Products, a Fortune 500 publicly traded building materials distribution company (NASDAQ: BECN). Beacon has over 550 locations throughout the United States and Canada and annual revenue of approximately $10 billion. From 2006 to May, 2021, he was Beacon’s EVP and General Counsel, responsible for all of the company’s legal affairs including contracts, employee relations, acquisitions, SEC reporting, corporate governance, insurance procurement, commercial leasing, and litigation and claims management. From May 2021 until his retirement, he led the company's mergers and acquisitions department as he transitioned to full-time academia. Prior to joining Beacon, Mr. Cooper was the Chair of the Business Litigation Practice Group of Shulman Rogers, the largest suburban Washington, D.C.-area law firm. His practice consisted of general business, contract and construction litigation; securities; antitrust; employment discrimination; intellectual property; and government contracts. He had extensive experience before federal and state trial and appellate courts throughout the United States. Prior to joining Shulman Rogers in 1999, Mr. Cooper served in both the public and private sectors, with the U.S. Department of Justice, where he received the Attorney General’s Outstanding Achievement Award in 1993-95, and thereafter with the Washington, D.C. office of Kaye, Scholer, LLP. Mr. Cooper began his legal career in 1990 with the Washington, D.C. office of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson. In 2017, Mr. Cooper was an adjunct professor of Business Law at St. Mary's College of Maryland. From 2018-2023, he was on the faculty of the Kogod School of Business at American University and in 2022, the Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland.
Academic Appointment(s)
- Primary
- Professor of the Practice, MSB - Accounting Area