Matt Cooper

Matt Cooper oversees the public services staff at the Moritz Law Library, including the circulation and reference departments. He also provides reference services to students, faculty, staff, and other visitors to the law library. Cooper teaches various research and writing courses including Legal Analysis and Writing I to first-year students and Ohio Legal Research to upper division students. He is a licensed attorney, having been a member of the Ohio Bar since 2001. Prior to joining the library, Cooper worked as an assistant public defender in Wilmington, Ohio, representing numerous indigent clients in felony and misdemeanor criminal matters. He also worked as a staff attorney at the Twelfth District Ohio Court of Appeals, assisting judges with legal research and opinion drafting.

Cooper graduated cum laude with a BA in history from the University of Notre Dame before receiving a JD from The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. He also earned a Master’s degree in library and information science from Kent State University.

Cooper is a member of the American Association of Law Libraries, the Ohio Regional Association of Law Libraries, and the Columbus Bar Association.

Selected publications and presentations:

• Book Review of Ducktown Smoke: The Fight over One of the South’s Greatest Environmental Disasters, 104 Law Libr. J. 322 (Spring 2012).
• Book Review of The Devil Is in the Details: Understanding the Causes of Policy Specificity and Ambiguity, 106 Law Libr. J. 621 (Fall 2014).
• Presentation, “Ohio Case Citation,” Columbus Bar Association Summer Associate Training (June 2012).
• Presentation (Co-Presenter), “Building Skills to Teach Outside the Research Box: Law Librarians Teaching Legal Writing to 1Ls,” Ohio Regional Association of Law Libraries Annual Meeting (October 2016).
• Presentation (Co-Presenter), “Make Research Great Again: Building Resources and Skills for Researching Election Law,” Ohio Regional Association of Law Libraries Annual Meeting (October 2016).
• Presentation, “Citation and Court Rules in Ohio,” Columbus Bar Association Summer Associate Training (June 2018).

• BA, University of Notre Dame
• JD, Moritz College of Law
• MLIS, Kent State University