Dr. Cooper, an experienced professor and Employment Law Attorney in the federal court, has nearly 22 years full-time, Active bar status and is in good standing for approximately 22 years in Indiana, a state in which the applicant is admitted from January 1999 (waivein to Illinois, 2012). Twice a FULBRIGHT Post-Doctoral Fellow-Lecturer\Professor (Iceland & Denmark) with a track record of having taught TORTS; CRIM LAW; MEDIATION-ADR; EMPL LAW; SOC OF LAW, INTER ALIA
Illinois Supreme Court: SEE\CLICK ON BELOW VIDEO-LINK TO SEE MY MAY 2020 ORAL ARGUMENT https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uvx1j6kTspo&fbclid=IwAR3c93kKeyXJ1iZeaUS7p0XEa3PnDWAfA8tPBdKcloK86d1dR837E6PL2Lo
One of the Country’s Renowned POLICING Conflict Resolution experts (inclusive of Mediation) with a lengthy scholarly publication as to Policing, justice and court related Mediation GOOGLE: CHRISTOOPHER COOPER, POLICE, MEDIATION, CONFLICT RESOLUTION FEATURED ON MSNBC, CNN, BBC, & NPR, INTER ALIA
Past Vice President of James C. Kimbrough Bar Association (A black lawyers’ assoc.) 9/11 TOWER 2 FIRST RESPONDER (Searched Underneath rubble for Survivors) & United States Marine Combat Veteran Former United States Marine (Iraq War veteran)
Current Appointments:
- Cooper sits on the 7th Circuit Advisory Committee on Circuit Rules” (Appt. by 7th Cir Chief Judge Diane Wood)
- Cooper sits on the 7th Circuit Bar Association Conference Planning Committee (with 7th Cir. & U.S. District Court judges).
- Cooper sits on the 7th Circuit Bar Association “Foundation Planning Committee (with 7th Cir. & U.S. District Court judges). ______________________________________________________________________________________
- More than twenty-years of trial lawyer (law) practice to including sitting as a judge (pro tem [part time];
- Management and supervisory experience to include grant writing and curricula writing (discussion, infra.);
- EXTENSIVE TEACHING EXPERIENCE: 1995-2009: Having a track record of having taught: ADR; Criminal Law; Torts; Civil Procedure; Common Law; Constitutional Law; Research Methods; Employment Law; Mediation; Dispute Resolution; Sociology of Law; Juvenile Law; Business Law; Criminology; Victimology; and Criminalistics, inter alia;
- Having twice served as a Post-Doctoral Fulbright Fellow teaching as a visiting member of the University of Akureyri Faculty of Laws in Iceland and teaching Criminology at the University of Denmark; and,
- My expansive scholarly publication record.
- MY JUDICIAL EXPERIENCE:
As a Judge Pro Tem:
- I have presided over (conducted) trials, and countless, similar evidentiary proceedings;
- I have presided over court events in a criminal court, in a family court, and in a court of general jurisdiction;
- I have made bail\bond decisions;
- I have heard and accepted pleas;
- I have sentenced people;
- I have decided child support matters;
- I have ruled on Discovery conflicts;
- I have adjudicated requests for Orders of Protection;
- I have written substantive court opinions; and,
- I have presided over many evidentiary hearings including bench trials.
My background in ADR is extensive and dating back to September 1984 when I began my training under the pupillage of Dr. Maria Volpe. I completed the two-year CUNY ADR program to include Mediation internships in the Manhattan criminal small claims courts; as well as interned at [nationally known} IMCR in Harlem, New York (and now located in the Bronx).
Other Experience
My background as a Ph.D., is in Sociological Jurisprudence (with an emphasis on policing). My background as a lawyer is in federal civil rights (including criminal, Torts, Constitutional and employment law). I have taught the ADR; certified well over 1000 people; written a book on the subject of Mediation and have written countless peer-reviewed and non-reviewed periodicals on ADR subjects. I have lectured on ADR as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Copenhagen, as well as presented papers on ADR in Varna, Bulgaria; London, England; and Toronto; Canada among other countless venues. Universities to which I have been invited to speak about ADR include Brandeis University; Capital University School of Law; and Lund University.
OTHER MEDIATION-ADR TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Adjunct Instructor, Mediation Team Coach, John Marshall Law School, Chicago (Spring semester, 2011).
Books
- (1999). Mediation and Arbitration by Patrol Police Officers. University Press of America. Lanham, Maryland.
- (1996). Conflict/Dispute Resolution Training & Police Officers. Sociologisk Rapportserie, Nr. 3. University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
Book Chapters (Not inclusive)
- (2019) Foreword by Christopher Cooper in Patrick J. Solar’s Police Community Relations, A Conflict Management Approach, West Acad. Publishing. ISBN:978-1-64020-154-5.
- (2006). Police Mediators: Rethinking the Role of Law Enforcement in the New Millennium in Jay Folberg’s … [et al.].
- (c2005) Resolving disputes: theory, practice, and law by Aspen Publishers.
- (2002). Mediation in Black and White: Unequal Distribution of Empowerment by Police in Jabari Asim’s Not Guilty: Twelve Black Men Speak Out on Law, Justice, & Life. Harper & Collins (Amistad), pp. 125-141
Journal Articles (Not an inclusive list. Too many to list)
- -(2002). Conceptualizing Mediation Use by Police. Center for Juvenile & Criminal Justice. Online publication: www.cjcj.org –
- *(2001). Achieving Racial Equality for Blacks in the Mediation Profession. Conflict Resolution Notes, Vol. 19, No 2: 16-18. * *
- (2001). Conceptualizing Opposition to Mediation Use by Police. Journal of Practical Dispute Resolution, V. 2, No. 2: 21-43. -*
- (2001). Mediation in Black & White: Mediation Center-Police Partnerships & A Dignified Police Response. Mediation Quarterly, Vol. 18, No. 3: 281-295. -(2000) Police Mediators: Rethinking the Role of Law Enforcement in the new Millennium in Dispute Resolution Magazine, The American Bar Association, Fall 2000: 17. –
- *(2000) Designing a Successful Mediation Curriculum. Metropolitan Universities Journal, Vol. 10, No. 4: 81-84.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
- –Mediated in NYC Criminal Courts to include for IMCR [http://www.imcr.org] 1984-1986.
- -Director (and founder), Saint Xavier University Center for Conflict Resolution 1998-2005.
- As director of the Saint Xavier University Center for Conflict Resolution, I certify lawyers and non-lawyers as mediators. I created and teach a 45-hour mediation certification course to students throughout the US; as well as teach two threecredit, university level, mediation/conflict resolution courses.
- Additionally, in conjunction with the office of the Illinois States Attorney, I did create (in 1998-99) and administer (mediated and oversaw my student mediators mediate the cases referred by prosecutors) the Mediation
- Restorative Justice Program for the 6th District Circuit Court (Markham), the Juvenile Division in 1999 into 2000. Contractor (Circa. 1999-2000 approx.). Having performed Conflict Resolution and Mediation duties for and with the United States Department of Justice Community Relations Service.
- -Director (and founder), State University of New York, Potsdam Mediation Program 1996 –
Certified in Mediation in 1986 (as a student at John Jay College) in what is now the CUNY DR Consortium – - Mediated in NYC Criminal Courts to include for IMCR [http://www.imcr.org] 1984-1986
I HAVE AN EXTENSIVE SCHOLARLY PUBLICATION RECORD (NOT INCLUSIVE: too many to list)
Books
- (1999). Mediation and Arbitration by Patrol Police Officers. University Press of America. Lanham, Maryland.
- (1996). Conflict/Dispute Resolution Training & Police Officers. Sociologisk Rapportserie, Nr. 3. University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
