Matthew F. Cooper retired as a Justice of the New York State Supreme Court in December of 2021, having served for 21 years in the state judiciary.
Cooper is a graduate of Hobart College, where he received his B.A., cum laude, in 1974. Following two years as a VISTA volunteer with Bronx Legal Services, he attended Antioch School of Law in Washington, D.C., where he earned his J.D. in 1979. He went on to practice law in New York City for over 20 years, with his legal career focused on representing working people in union pre-paid legal services programs.
In 2000, Cooper was elected to the New York City Civil Court. He was initially assigned to Criminal Court for three years before returning to hear civil matters. In 2008, he was appointed an Acting Supreme Court Justice. Two years later he was elected to the New York State Supreme Court. From 2009 until his retirement, Cooper presided over court parts that dealt exclusively with divorce and custody cases.
Cooper has been a member of the New York County Lawyers Association, the New York City Bar Association Matrimonial Committee, the New York State Bar Association Family and Matrimonial Law Section, and the New York Women’s Bar Association. He frequently lectures at CLEs and conferences, often focusing on children, child development and mental health issues, as well as financial issues such as support, maintenance, and equitable distribution.
In addition to teaching lawyers and judges, Cooper has been an associate professor at New York Law School, having taught Anatomy of a Divorce with Justice Laura Drager, and an adjunct professor at CUNY’s College for Worker Education, having taught introduction to the legal process. He also lectured regularly on divorce law and trial advocacy to classes at the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University and New York University schools of law.
During his time on the bench, Cooper served as Chair of the Board of Justices of the Supreme Court, First Judicial District, and on the executive boards of the New York State and the New York City Associations of Supreme Court Justices.
Since his retirement from the bench, Cooper has had an active practice mediating divorce and family law cases involving both financial and child custody issues.
