Practice Areas

Administrative Law
Antitrust
Appellate
Class Action
Commercial Litigation
Constitution — First Amendment
Constitution — Second Amendment
Constitution — Fifth Amendment
Constitution — Civil Rights
Constitution — Commerce Clause
Constitution — Separation of Powers
Constitution — Voting Rights
Election Law
Employment Litigation
Government Contracts
Healthcare Litigation
Intellectual Property
Qui Tam
Real Estate Litigation
State Representation
Telecommunication Litigation
Trial Practice
U.S. Supreme Court
U.S. Court of Appeals
Trial Practice

Trial Practice

Cooper & Kirk has extensive experience in both bench and jury trials in both federal and state courts for both Plaintiffs and Defendants across a broad range of practice areas. Our attorneys have tried cases that range from First and Second Amendment disputes, to voting rights, to takings disputes, to healthcare litigation, to school choice litigation, to defamation and breach of contract to name just a few areas in which Cooper & Kirk has gone to trial. There is virtually no practice area in which we specialize that a Cooper & Kirk attorney has not gone to trial. This extensive experience has allowed Cooper & Kirk to master evidentiary issues and to develop a deep understanding for refining the issues in a case and presenting them in a per-suasive manner to the finder of fact. Because Cooper & Kirk frequently takes cases from trial through appeal, we are particularly well situated to develop the relevant legal issues and important factual support for legal positions from the beginning of a case so that we can achieve success for our clients when cases do go up on appeal.

A significant part of Cooper & Kirk’s success at trial has stemmed from our in-depth experience handling discovery demands at the outset of a case. We have handled numerous large discovery cases involving millions of documents, terabytes of data, and hundreds of records custodians that have required significant ingenuity in identifying and deploying the key documents in a case. Cooper & Kirk’s ability to deal with both large and small document cases has been one of the reasons for our success over the years.

When the Covid-pandemic seemingly shut down the world, Cooper & Kirk did not miss a beat. During the pandemic we not only continued to litigate cases, conducting numerous hearing and depositions virtually, we tried an entire case challenging North Carolina’s voter ID statute virtually, presenting fact and expert witnesses, conducting cross-examinations, and introducing evidence all over the internet.

Issue
State of Tennessee - Medicaid Program Challenges
Level of Court
US Court of Appeals - Sixth Circuit

Overview We have successfully represented the State of Tennessee in a number of cases challenging the State’s broad-based reform of its Medicaid program. The State is a signatory to several consent decrees that arguably limit its ability to reform its medical programs. In one such case, the district court ruled that the consent decree barred implementation of changes to the eligibility requirements for the State’s Medicaid program. We convinced the Sixth Circuit to reverse two of the lower court’s orders within a span of three months. Rosen v. Goetz, 410 F.3d 919 (6th Cir. 2005); Rosen v. Goetz, 129 Fed. Appx. 167, 2005 U.S. App. LEXIS 6444 (April 12, 2005). In a second case, Grier v. Goetz, No. 79-3107 (M.D. Tenn.), we successfully convinced the district court, following a three week trial, to substantially modify a consent decree that placed onerous restrictions on the State’s ability to reform its Medicaid program. As a result of these victories, the State has saved hundreds of millions of dollars.

Issue
Duke Lacrosse Rape Hoax Scandal
Level of Court
US Court of Appeals - Fourth Circuit

Overview We represented 39 members of the Duke lacrosse team in connection with the rape hoax scandal. After extensive discovery and motions practice and an appeal, the case settled.

Issue
Government Breach of Contract
Level of Court
US Court of Appeals - Federal Circuit

Overview We successfully represented EmpowerIT (formerly known as Marketing and Management Information, Inc. (“MMI”)), in a breach of contract action against the United States in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. The lawsuit stemmed from the decision of the Defense Commissary Agency (“DeCA”) (an agency within the Department of Defense) to terminate a sale/exchange contract between MMI and DeCA, pursuant to which DeCA agreed to provide MMI with raw “scanner data” pertaining to sales at commissaries and MMI agreed to process that data and to perform certain category management support services for DeCA. The trial court granted our summary judgment motion on liability. After extensive discovery, the government agreed to settle the case on the eve of trial.

Issue
Government Breach of Contract
Level of Court
US Court of Federal Claims

Overview This case culminated in a five-week trial arising from the government’s breach of contract. We sought lost profits that would have been generated by our client, absent the breach. At the conclusion of trial, the case settled on favorable terms.