Lawyer Bio : James P. Cooney, III

James P. Cooney, III

"Jim"

Charlotte

Chambers 2010

Jim Cooney has represented individuals and businesses in some of the most difficult and high-profile cases in North Carolina. Over the past several years he:
 
  • Successfully defended Reade Seligmann - - one of the wrongfully charged lacrosse players in the “Duke Lacrosse Rape Case” - - by securing a dismissal of the charges and a declaration by the Attorney General of North Carolina that Reade Seligmann was innocent.
  • Successfully defended a convicted death row inmate, Alan Gell, by exposing the prosecutorial misconduct that led to his wrongful conviction and sentence of death. Heading a team of Womble Carlyle lawyers who worked pro bono, Cooney first convinced a Superior Court Judge to reverse Gell’s conviction and sentence of death and then, acting as co-counsel at Gell’s retrial, obtained a “not guilty” verdict. Gell became the 113th person in the United States to be exonerated after being wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death. Cooney was awarded the North Carolina Bar Association’s Pro Bono Award for his work in Alan Gell’s case.
  • Successfully defended a convicted death row inmate, Michael Pinch, by gaining a reversal of two first degree murder convictions and death sentences that had been imposed 26 years earlier. During the course of representing Pinch for more than a decade, Cooney found both legal errors and prosecutorial misconduct that led a Superior Court to throw out Pinch’s convictions and death sentences.
  • Successfully defended five hospital systems in seven putative class action lawsuits brought on behalf of uninsured patients, resulting in a dismissal of all claims against the hospital systems.
  • Successfully defended a comprehensive Mecklenburg County Government plan for urban redevelopment in four separate lawsuits claiming various state statutory, state constitutional and federal constitutional violations.
  • Successfully defended the North Carolina Democratic Party in hearings before the State Board of Elections alleging that the Party participated in a scheme to avoid the campaign finance laws of North Carolina involving the Mike Easley for Governor Campaign.
Jim has tried more than 50 jury cases to verdict in civil and criminal cases and handled more than 35 appeals in the State and Federal courts. He is a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers and a Permanent Member of the Fourth Circuit Judicial Conference. Jim has been selected as one of the “Best Lawyers in America” since 2000 in both civil and criminal litigation. He is the only attorney selected as one of the top trial lawyers in North Carolina in civil and criminal work; in 2006, 2007. 2008, 2009 and 2010 he was selected as one of the top ten civil attorneys in North Carolina. In 2007 he was the top vote recipient for criminal attorneys in North Carolina and in 2010 was voted the best attorney for “Bet Your Company” cases. 
 
Jim has lectured extensively throughout North Carolina and the country to law-enforcement groups, attorney organizations and law schools. In recent years he has spoken at the California Criminal Defense Lawyers Death Penalty Conference, the Ohio Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, the Federal Bar Association of Jacksonville, Florida, the Palm Beach Bar Association (Law Day Lecture), the Alabama Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, the National Association of Legal Investigators, the Toledo Bar Association, the New England Conference of Special Investigators, the National Meeting of the American College of Trial Lawyers, the National Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys (Forensic and Eyewitness Seminars), and the Florida Bar Association, and the Kentucky Bar Association. He has given invited lectures at the University of Virginia School of Law, Vanderbilt Law School, Campbell Law School, the Charlotte School of Law, and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
 
Jim graduated from Duke University in 1979 with a B.A. in History and Political Science, summa cum laude with distinction in History. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1982 where he was a member of the Order of the Coif and the Research and Projects Editor of the Virginia Law Review. From 1982 to 1983, he was a Law Clerk to the Hon. John D. Butzner, Jr., of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Jim practiced law with Kennedy Covington Lobdell & Hickman in Charlotte from 1983 through 2000 before joining Womble Carlyle. He is a past-President of the North Carolina Association of Defense Attorneys, and has served as the Chair of the Civil Litigation and Courts Committees of the Mecklenburg County Bar, the Chair of the North Carolina Bar Association AIDS Task Force, a member of the Advisory Commission on the Rules of Civil Procedure for the North Carolina General Assembly, and a member of the Special Select Commission of the State Bar of North Carolina investigating the Hoke/Graves Ethics Prosecution. He and his wife, Betsy, were married in 1979 and have three daughters: Katherine, Margaret and Caroline.

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Professional Activities

Bar Associations: Mecklenburg County Bar Association, Chair, Civil Litigation Section, 1993-1998; North Carolina Bar Association, Chair, AIDS Task Force. Member, North Carolina Association of Defense Attorneys, Board of Directors, 1992-1998, President, 1996-1997; General Assembly Task Force on the Rules of Civil Procedure, 1997-1998; Permanent Member, Fourth Circuit Judicial Conference; Chair, Mecklenburg County Courts Committee, 1993-1998; American College of Trial Lawyers; Member, Board of Directors, Community Defender Organization for the Western District of North Carolina (2004 to present); Special Select Committee for the North Carolina State Bar, Investigation into Hoke/Graves Disciplinary Hearing, 2005.

Admitted to bar 1984, North Carolina. Admitted to practice before the U.S. District Court for the Eastern, Middle and Western Districts of North Carolina, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, the U.S. Supreme Court, and all North Carolina State courts.

Civic Activities

Board Member: Opera Carolina, Summit House, Community Health Services, and the Center for Death Penalty Litigation.

Education

B.A., History and Political Science, 1979, Duke University, summa cum laude; Phi Beta Kappa; Distinction in History; Pi Sigma Alpha Political Honor Society; Phi Eta Sigma Freshman Honor Society; J.D., 1982, University of Virginia School of Law; Order of the Coif; Research & Projects Editor, Virginia Law Review, 1981-1982.

Prior Legal Experience

Member, Kennedy Covington Lobdell & Hickman, LLP, Charlotte, NC, 1989-2000; Associate, Kennedy Covington Lobdell & Hickman, LLP, Charlotte, NC, 1983-1989; Law Clerk, the Honorable John D. Butzner, Jr., U.S. Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit, Richmond, VA, 1982-1983; Summer Associate, Arnold & Porter, 1981.