via: Metropolitan News-Enterprise: May 13, 2014: ROGER M. GRACE
June, 2001. Andrew Cooper, a recent graduate of Loyola Law School, with a bar card freshly inserted in his wallet, wanted to be a Los Angeles County deputy district attorney.
But he couldn’t even apply. A hiring freeze was in effect.
In 2005, it was lifted.
There was a three-stage process in the competition for DDA spots. Cooper went through two interviews, and made it to the list of applicants who would participate in the third and crucial interview, with then-DA Steve Cooley.
“And then I got notified that they were not going to do any further interviews and they were going to shut down hiring,” he recounts.
A new hiring freeze had gone into effect.
“Several months later, I got a letter saying they were killing the list, they were no longer going to hire off of that list,” Cooper says. “Several months after that, they said they were going to restart hiring but you have to start all over.”
He applied anew, and this time went through all three stages. But, he says, he remembered what happened the first time he applied, and was pessimistic about getting the job he wanted.
Cooper was working for a civil law firm, Greenberg Traurig, where, he says, he intended to remain indefinitely. Then came a phone call at about 3 p.m. on a Friday.
Cooley was on the line.
“I was certainly taken off guard,” Cooper recalls.
“He said something to the effect of, ‘I’d like to offer you a position, an appointment, as a DA,’ and I said, ‘Can I have a little time to talk to my family, to let them know?’ ”
“What he said was, ‘Haven’t you thought about this already? Haven’t you discussed this already with your family?’
“And I said, ‘Sir, I absolutely have, at the time where I thought there was going to be a chance.’ So, he said, ‘You have until Monday at 9.’ ”
He talked to his wife, discussed it with a couple of partners in the firm, then left a voicemail at the DA’s Office that he accepted. He followed that up with a phone call at 8:30 on Monday morning.
Cooper reported for work on July 2, 2007. He now had the job he wanted.
Attracts Plaudits
By all accounts, he has done well as a prosecutor.
In announcing her endorsement of him, District Attorney Jackie Lacey said:
“Andrew has the experience, integrity and knowledge to be a fair and effective judge. He has prosecuted some of the most complex cases and the community will greatly benefit with him as a Superior Court Judge.”
Cooley endorsed him, commenting:
“Andrew’s extensive experience in the judicial system, community involvement, even-keeled personality and strong sense of fairness will make him an outstanding judge. Andrew is exceptionally well qualified to be a judge of the Superior Court.”
Former District Attorney Robert H. Philibosian terms Cooper “an example of what a judge should be.”
He presently has a complex litigation assignment in the Hardcore Gang Division. In Cooper’s latest annual performance evaluation, dated Jan. 3, his rating is “Exceeded Expectations (Very Good),” the equivalent of a “B.”
The report credits him with being “a thorough and effective trial advocate” who “[e]ffectively resolved novel, unusual, or rare legal issues with wisdom, creativity, and sound judgment.”
The previous annual report, giving him the same rating, characterizes Cooper as “an intelligent and resourceful trial attorney” with “thorough knowledge of applicable law, procedure, and evidence.”
Seeks Election
Now, Cooper wants another job: that of a Superior Court judge. He says he has loaned his campaign $100,000, about a third of the amount in its coffers. The rest of the money, he acknowledges, comes from “mainly family”—which basically means “from my father,” a surgeon.
At an early point in the campaign, he expressed the hope that he would “get the highest rating possible” from the Los Angeles County Bar Association—that is, “exceptionally well qualified.” That hope, Cooper explained, was pinned to “the diverse experiences I’ve had,” having handled civil cases before he became a prosecutor.
As it happens, LACBA pronounced him only “qualified,” the same rating it gave his opponent. And the “qualified” rating came only after Cooper appealed a tentative branding as “not qualified.”
However, there has been unprecedented shaking of heads over LACBA’s 2014 tentative and final ratings, with questions being raised in voices now hushed—but likely to become loud after the June 3 primary—as to how competently the bar association’s Judicial Elections Evaluation Committee has operated this year.
One election contender says there is an “across the board” impression among candidates that there was “a lack of fairness, an inconsistency in the evaluations,” and questioning in interviews of a curious and seemingly irrelevant nature. A political consultant, Fred Huebscher, has said for the record that LACBA “should be ashamed” of the way its committee operated.
Cooper is endorsed by 64 Los Angeles Superior Court judges.
Age 39
The candidate is 39, and somewhat self-conscious about his youth. When asked his age, he says: “I’ll be 40 this year.” That will be in November.
A testament to his maturity is an entry in his personnel evaluation, dated Dec. 28, 2012, saying that a “senior deputy noted that Mr. Cooper had legal knowledge, poise, and trial skills well beyond his years in the office.”
His opponent, Arnold William Mednick, 58, remarks that Cooper is “a little green,” adding:
“When I was 10 years out of law school, I wanted to be a judge too, If not this time, maybe some day he will make an excellent judge.”
Mednick also says of Cooper:
“I read his bio. It says he’s got 16 years of experience….So I looked at his bar admission. He was admitted 12 years ago. So I have a little trouble with the math.”
Cooper says, on his campaign website:
“For the last 16 years, I have protected our communities from dangerous criminals who attempt to destroy our neighborhoods, and who prey on innocent, hardworking residents and their families.”
He explains that this includes time he has spent, continuing to the present, as a reserve deputy sheriff.
Mednick acknowledges:
“I’m very impressed with his qualifications. I met him, I’ve talked to him. He seems like a nice, sincere, dedicated guy.
“I’ve heard good things about him from mutual friends.”
Cooper is married to a kindergarten teacher. He says they have a son “almost 2½” and a “child on the way.”
Their son’s first word was neither “Mommy” nor Daddy,” Cooper relates. It was “Woof”—the name his son has given to the family dog, a black Labrador. The toddler can’t yet say the actual name of the dog, “Trigger,” Cooper explains, saying of the boy and his dog:
“They are best friends. I think they have a separate language, these two.”
via: http://www.metnews.com/articles/2014/judielec051314.htm
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