Attorney General Robert E. Cooper, Jr.
Robert E. Cooper, Jr., was sworn in as the Attorney General and Reporter for the State of Tennessee on November 1, 2006. He was appointed by the Supreme Court to serve an eight-year term.
Among the accomplishments of the Attorney General's Office since the appointment of General Cooper are:
- A task force formed by the Attorney General’s office and other state agencies has collected almost $30 million in 16 healthcare provider fraud cases ranging from off-label marketing of drugs and fraudulent billing to kickbacks to physicians, and other illegal activities.
- The Attorney General’s office obtained a default judgment of almost $11 million against a nationwide group that targeted Ft. Campbell soldiers with predatory sales and lending practices and took action against a national electronics product company alleging that the company targeted at least 4,500 primarily low-income Tennessee consumers with high pressure sales tactics and failed to disclose key contract terms.
- The Attorney General led state agencies to form a working group on foreclosures and filed suit against “foreclosure rescue” operations in Memphis.
- In the area of environmental enforcement, the Attorney General’s office targeted violations of construction storm water permits which threatened Tennessee’s rivers and streams and pursued litigation to stop rock harvesting by private companies on state property.
Prior to his appointment as Attorney General and Reporter, General Cooper served as Legal Counsel to Governor Phil Bredesen from 2003 to 2006. In addition to providing legal advice to the Governor, he coordinated the legal affairs of the executive branch for the Governor, assisted in the development and implementation of legislation, advised on judicial appointments, and reviewed requests for executive clemency and extradition.
Before joining the Governor's office, General Cooper was a partner at Bass, Berry Sims, PLC, in Nashville where he specialized in corporate, constitutional and regulatory litigation. Prior to his work at the firm, he served as clerk for U.S. District Judge Louis F. Oberdorfer in Washington, D.C. General Cooper has served as an adjunct professor at Vanderbilt University Law School teaching campaign finance and election law.
General Cooper is a Chattanooga native. He holds a bachelor's degree from Princeton University, where he graduated magna cum laude, and a law degree from Yale University. He served as chairman of The Daily Princetonian and was managing editor of the Yale Law Journal. Between college and law school he worked as a reporter in North Carolina for The Raleigh Times.
