In 1992, with the U.S. economy rebounding from a recession, several of the country’s largest airlines sued each other over a price war. On one side was Continental and Northwest, which claimed larger rival American Airlines had illegally lowered fares to monopolize certain markets.
With American staring down upward of $3 billion in penalties, the case went to a federal jury, which deliberated for less than three hours before returning an acquittal.
After the favorable outcome for his clients was announced, Los Angeles attorney Bob Cooper quipped to a New York Times reporter that it was the legal equivalent of hitting “a hole in one.”
For Cooper, a giant in the antitrust legal defense world, the American Airlines case turned out to be one of many aces. He defended some of the country’s largest and most recognizable companies from antitrust and patent lawsuits, using his Midwestern charm and expert strategy to win over juries and judges throughout the 1980s and ’90s.
Cooper died June 27 at his home in Indian Wells, Calif., his longtime law firm Gibson Dunn & Crutcher said. He was 85.
He served as lead trial counsel for high-profile company clients such as Allergan, Callaway, Hewlett-Packard, Honeywell, Intel, Northrop Grumman, Sempra Energy and Ticketmaster.
Starting at 32, he successfully defended Pfizer in antibiotics antitrust trials in Minneapolis, Philadelphia, New York and North Carolina, at the time the largest patent cases in the country.
“He was clearly one of our best trial lawyers, and I think became one of the best trial lawyers in the country,” former Gibson Dunn chair and managing partner Ken Doran said. “He has a way of communicating that was authentic, believable, credible and persuasive.”
That talent — to not just argue a case, but also make a jury believe him — earned Cooper a lengthy list of legal victories. Colleagues said his successes propelled his L.A. firm to become a white-shoe powerhouse, with offices around the globe.
“Remarkably, Bob lost only one case over all those years — and even that outcome might have been reversed had the parties chosen to pursue an appeal rather than settle,” said a memo to Gibson Dunn partners after his passing. His cause of death was listed as acute myeloid leukemia, which he was diagnosed with in 2023.
“Bob Cooper’s story is a metaphor for the story of Los Angeles and California law firms going national and global at the center of the biggest cases in the world,” said Ted Boutrous, a Gibson Dunn partner.
Robert Elliott Cooper was born Sept. 6, 1939, and raised in Kansas City. He attended Northwestern University and then Yale Law School, where he was editor of the Yale Law Journal. After graduating he joined Gibson Dunn, where he would work for nearly half a century.
At the firm in his later years he was known as a mentor who shared cases that helped younger litigators launch their careers. He lacked the bravado and ego of stereotypical trial lawyers, always even-keeled, calm and quick to spread the credit to others on his team, colleagues said.
“One of the earliest lessons that he taught me was, if you’re good at something, people will notice. You don’t have to tell them,” Cooper’s son Jeff said of his father.
He was just as much himself in the courtroom as he was outside of it, often on a golf course cracking jokes with a Coca-Cola — he had one in his hand morning, noon or night, friends said. He would occasionally delight friends with an impromptu serenade on the violin, which he’d played since grade school.
Cooper also served as president of the Los Angeles Country Club after he retired, where he in 2017 hosted the Walker Cup, a popular amateur golf tournament.
Cooper is survived by his wife, Elaine; children Jeff, Greg and Kathy; and three grandchildren, Amanda, Eli and Robert.