Born in Philadelphia in 1942, Richard Cooper attended Haverford College and studied philosophy, politics and economics (PPE) at Oxford before making the decision to become a lawyer. As a litigator in food and drug law, his clients have included major pharmaceutical and other consumer products companies, and he has represented them in congressional and other hearings. He has served on the boards of a number of charities and non-profits and continues to champion charitable causes, particularly in education. This narrative is excerpted from an interview with the Rhodes Trust on 28 November 2023.
Richard Cooper
Pennsylvania & University 1964
Richard walking in Oxford.
Richard outside Blackwell's.
Richard as a young man.
Talking with friends.
Richard mentioned as a Rhodes Scholar in a magazine.
Richard's certificate.
Bachelor of Arts certificate.
Commissioner's Special Citation.
Richard's book on Food and Drug Law.
From the Democratic Credentials Committee.
Rules of Procedure, created by Richard.
Written by Richard.
A recent photo of Richard.
‘I got an absolutely first-class education’
Until I was 12, we lived in a quite urban neighbourhood. My father had worked his way through the University of Pennsylvania, the Wharton School and then the University of Pennsylvania Law School, working the midnight to 8 a.m. shift at the post office. My mother became a kindergarten teacher. My family is Jewish, and I remember, in our neighbourhood in Philadelphia, there were some people who had tattooed numbers on their arms from the Holocaust. My father and mother both had brothers and sisters living nearby. My mother’s father was born in Poland and had an arranged marriage which was unhappy, so they divorced, and he came to the United States. Later, he learned that, during the First World War, his first wife had died, and their son had been put into a displaced persons’ camp. There are different stories about what happened next, but either way, the son was brought to the United States and became an artist, an art teacher, and my Uncle Max.
I loved sports, and my high school, Overbrook High, was known for producing basketball stars, including Wilt Chamberlain and Hal Lear; and the coach of the 10th grade (“cadet”) team was John Chaney, who went on to become a famous basketball coach at Temple University. So, although I played on the cadet and junior varsity basketball teams, there was no way I was going to make the varsity team. That had to wait until I attended Haverford College.
At Haverford, I received an absolutely first-class education. I had wonderful professors, and I majored in philosophy. Alongside that, I played on the junior varsity and the varsity basketball teams. I also had very interesting summer jobs, including working at a Coca-Cola bottling plant and delivering mail for the post office. I had learned German as part of my preparation to study philosophy; and in 1963, after my junior year, I got a job with the Berliner Commerzbank in what was then West Berlin. I was there when President Kennedy came to Berlin, and a friend even took me through Checkpoint Charlie to East Berlin. A friend of his was a television repair man and had set his television to receive western channels (illegally). That’s how I watched President Kennedy’s famous ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’ speech.
‘It opened new worlds to me’
I don’t remember the moment I decided to apply for the Rhodes Scholarship. I won Danforth and Woodrow Wilson Scholarships as well, but the Rhodes took precedence, obviously. I had a wonderful experience at Oxford. It opened new worlds to me. I had friends from India, Canada, Australia, and South Africa, whom I otherwise never would have met. One of my closest friends and study mates was Montek Singh Ahluwalia (India & Magdalen 1964), who went on to work at the World Bank and the IMF and to become a senior figure in the government of India. Another was Rajkumar Advani who was from a prominent Indian family and went on to found the magazine, Business India. His mother would send him mangoes, so that is how I was introduced to mangoes.
I had inspirational tutors, including P.F. Strawson in philosophy and Maurice Shock in politics. When it comes to lectures, I particularly remember Elizabeth Anscombe’s and Isaiah Berlin’s lectures as being especially brilliant. Isaiah Berlin never looked at notes, never looked at his audience. He just stared at the ceiling and talked non-stop. I rowed at Oxford, which was something new for me, and I also enjoyed the debates at the Oxford Union. I remember Malcolm X speaking at the Union: his talk was well-reasoned, thoughtful, careful, not the flaming radical that one had been led to expect. He received a standing ovation at the end. The one big surprise for me at Oxford was having what they called a ‘scout’ to clean your room and shine your shoes and so on. I would hide my shoes, because I didn’t want somebody having to shine them for me. He would call me ‘Sir’, and I was supposed to call him ‘Norman’, but I called him ‘Sir’ as well. It was tough for an American to adjust to that kind of formality.
From Oxford… to Uganda
After Oxford, I spent one summer in Paris as a correspondent for TIME magazine, which was a very interesting experience; and then I returned to the U.S. to attend Harvard Law School. I had thought about becoming a philosophy professor, but while I was at Oxford I changed my mind and decided I wanted to become a lawyer, as my father had been. After my first year of law school, I worked as an intern for a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee. This was at the time when President Lyndon Johnson nominated Thurgood Marshall to become the first African American justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, so seeing that process was an extraordinary experience for me. Later, I became president of the Harvard Law Review. After graduation, I became a law clerk for Justice William J. Brennan, Jr., at the U.S. Supreme Court.
I went on to spend a year in Uganda. I was sent there by the International Legal Center, and my job was to work with Kutlu Fuad, the head of Uganda’s Law Development Centre. One of my roles was to help draft laws (and, after Idi Amin came to power, decrees). I also traveled to provincial towns to meet local legal officials and report to them about legal developments in Kampala, and I taught a course on choice of law to magistrates and tribal elders who conducted courts under customary law. My experience in Uganda provided a fascinating insight into a different type of legal system and into a place with different cultures. I remember that, in one class, I was explaining that in Anglo-American law, an adult man could not be held responsible for his brother’s debts; and one student, horrified, said ‘What kind of people are you?’
‘Public health and public protection’
Back in the U.S., I joined the law firm now known as Williams & Connolly. I already had a connection there through Steve Umin (New York & Magdalen 1959), whom I had met through my work for the Senate Judiciary Committee. The first thing I had to do was negotiate my salary with Edward Bennett Williams, who was probably the most distinguished and famous lawyer in America. As you can imagine, it was a short negotiation.
The connections between the firm and the Democratic Party were very strong, and I volunteered to work for the party’s Compliance Review Commission in connection with the 1976 Democratic National Convention. That became an important basis for my getting a job in the Carter administration, where I joined the staff of James Schlesinger to help prepare President Carter’s National Energy Plan. Jim Schlesinger was, I think, one of the most brilliant people I have ever encountered. I was by far the least experienced person on the staff, so I was given what were considered the least important areas to work on – renewable energy and conservation. There was no conception of climate change at that time.
I went on to become Chief Counsel at the Food and Drug Administration. The team there was impressive and dedicated. These were people with scientific and medical degrees who could have made much more money in the private sector but who had dedicated themselves to working for the cause of public health and public protection. I had a very worthwhile, enjoyable experience there. It’s one of the reasons I went on to teach in this area at Georgetown University Law Center: I think food and drug law is a very rewarding field that law students ought to know about. The variety of the work – learning to be a trial lawyer, dealing with medical and scientific questions, learning new things all the time – is something I find inspiring and enjoyable. I never wanted to do the same thing day after day.
‘Look for and seize those opportunities’
All the time that I was working and also teaching and writing articles, I was volunteering. I served on the boards of a number of non-profits, and perhaps the most satisfying experience that I had was coaching basketball for the Jelleff Boys and Girls Club, which brought together children from all over the District of Columbia. It was a very good mix of kids, so that was really enjoyable.
These days, I’m motivated and inspired by spending time with my family, and particularly by seeing the energy that my grandchildren have. I also continue to help a number of charitable and non-profit organisations in the educational and environmental spheres and those that help poor people in this country and abroad. I think that part of a good life is enjoying the opportunities you have and also serving your fellow human beings. Different phases of life offer different opportunities, and you should look for and seize those opportunities. Living the good life is about enjoying your circumstances, enjoying your family, your friends, your work, your neighbours. But it’s also about giving to others.