Bo Cooper

Bo Cooper is a Partner in the firm’s Washington, DC office, and leads the firm’s Government Strategies and Compliance Group. He provides strategic immigration advice to a range of clients that includes corporations, hospitals and research institutions, universities, trade associations, international media outlets, and individuals facing complex immigration problems.

He has long experience in helping clients identify and drive policy solutions; has guided clients through complex immigration strategy challenges, including through interactions with the agencies and with consulates around the world; and has represented clients in large-scale federal audits and investigations.

Before entering private practice, Bo served as General Counsel of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) from 1999 to 2003. He directed a legal program of 700 attorneys in 56 offices across the nation.

He served in this capacity during two Administrations, advising the Commissioner of the INS, the Attorney General of the United States, the White House, other Executive Branch agencies, and the U.S. Congress on all aspects of U.S. immigration law.

Bo also has extensive federal litigation experience, including several years as a trial attorney in the Civil Division of the Department of Justice.

Bo has testified frequently before the U.S. Congress, and has made many television, radio, and print media appearances, including the PBS Newshour, Sixty Minutes, Nightline, the Today Show, Good Morning America, CNN, BBC Radio, CBC Radio, and National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered.”

Bo was involved in negotiating immigration-related agreements between the U.S. and other governments, and has acted as a U.S. delegate to international organizations.

Bo also has an extensive pro bono practice, addressing asylum, Convention Against Torture, and a wide range of other immigration issues for clients in need of donated legal services. He has appeared as amicus in cases before the U.S. Supreme Court; has served as an expert witness in federal litigation surrounding the reach of federal and state authority over immigration; and has advised the Department of Homeland Security through a Homeland Security Advisory Committee task force.

EDUCATION:

• Tulane University School of Law | J.D., 1987, cum laude
• Tulane University | B.A., 1983

Bar Admissions: Louisiana

MEMBERSHIPS:

• Practice Limited to Federal Immigration & Nationality Law
• Public Interest/Public Service Faculty Fellow, University of Michigan Law School
• Fellow in Law and Government and Adjunct Professor, Washington College of Law at American University
• Adjunct Professor, Georgetown Law Center
• Law Clerk to the Chief Justice, High Court of American Samoa