Alumni Profile

Jeff Cooper Class of 1995 Partner, SimmonsCooper “Soccer Junkie”

What made you want to go to law school?
Initially when I went to law school I thought it was because I wanted to enter public office, and I thought that was the best way to do it. I ran for Congress in the 2000 election cycle, and I like to say I came in second as opposed to saying I lost terribly. I found out it wasn’t what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I loved trial advocacy. The advocacy part of the practice of law is what drew me to it and kept me going upon graduation.

What was your first job out of law school?
My first job was working for a firm called Jones and Granger in Chicago. They practiced a combination of labor law and railroad law. It was great experience. I worked with a guy who enabled me to try cases on my own and get in the courtroom a lot, so right out of law school I was kind of thrown into the fire.

What is your fondest memory of law school?
My fondest memory is all of the friends I made there, so it’s sort of a collection of memories from all the different times, most of them revolving around getting done with finals.

What is one of your scariest memories from law school?
My scariest memory was my first day in Professor Immel’s class. You heard all the horror stories about Professor Immel and what he could do to you during class and what he was absolutely going to do to you once grades came out, so my first day of class was certainly the most frightening. If you weren’t prepared, it was just outright humiliation—in a very funny way for everyone else, but for you it always felt terrible.

What were some of the professional challenges you faced?
The most daunting thing is that we [SimmonsCooper] took a law firm that started with eight people in 1999 and grew it to about 550-600 people globally at this point. There are a lot of business issues that have nothing to do with practicing the law, and those issues were tough to deal with. Law school curricula across the country could really do with a class in how to do business, how you set up a payroll, how you go about getting your employees insurance. Because if you don’t teach lawyers how to be businesspeople, then new law firms don’t crop up and existing law firms don’t grow. Law school also doesn’t prepare you for ways to grow your legal business. You can be the best lawyer in the world, but if you don’t worry about the business of being a lawyer, you’re still going to work hand-to-mouth.

Talk a little about your current interests.
I’m really concentrating on bringing a Major League Soccer team and a Women’s Professional Soccer team to St. Louis through our organization, St. Louis Soccer United. The women’s team will start in April 2009, and hopefully the MLS team will start in 2010, and so we’re just trying to put together the stadium deal and all the property development going around it.

What will be the benefits of bringing a soccer franchise to St. Louis?
Obviously, it’s a huge amount of recognition first of all. Anytime you can add a professional franchise it adds to the allure of the city. The second thing is that it adds a great deal economically. We’ll be adding over 3,000 brand new full-time jobs and about 7,500 part-time jobs. The merchants in the area will see a huge boom in their business because in addition to the pro soccer business and the other things that will go on at the stadium [which will be located in Collinsville, Ill.], we also have merged a significant portion of the St. Louis youth soccer market into one club, and the money that the youth soccer families spend will be pumped back into the community as well. I believe that with the MLS project that St. Louis, in particular the soccer community, is really my client. I’m arguing on their behalf as to why we should have a Major League Soccer team.

Will you leave the practice of law entirely?
No. I enjoy it first of all, and I’ve got too many friends here at SimmonsCooper that I really enjoy working with, and so I’m looking forward to becoming of counsel. Becoming of counsel is a little like becoming a grandparent—you can do the things you enjoy at the law firm, but you don’t have to take care of it on a day-to-day basis.

What is your favorite lawyer movie?
My favorite lawyer movie is probably “Erin Brockovich” just because Tom Girardi is my friend.

Who’s your favorite soccer player?
As a kid in St. Louis you gotta love Slobo. He was phenomenal. My favorite player in the past 20 years is David Beckham. The best player today is Christiano Ronaldo of Manchester United. There’s nobody that’s close to him right now.