Marnell A Cooper

Attorney
Palmer|Cooper LLC

A native Baltimorean, Marnell Cooper has traveled the world representing clients in trade and diplomatic efforts.

Yet he considers one of his most significant accomplishments as an attorney taking a case from a woman that more than a dozen other firms rejected, he said. The woman was on the verge of being evicted from her home of 25 years.

“What I realized is that the attorneys before me did not stop to listen to her case,” Cooper said. “She did not have any money and it did not look as if she stood a chance.”

But after months of work, Cooper resolved the case in her favor so that she was allowed to stay in her home and was awarded a six-figure judgement, he said.

“This case has inspired me to listen to everyone who walks in the door and to do what I can to help them,” Cooper said.

A resident of Baltimore’s Cherry Hill and Edmondson Village neighborhoods, Cooper graduated from one of the lowest performing high schools in the Baltimore, Cooper. At the time, he felt he wasn’t academically or socially prepared to perform in college at a high level. So, after graduating from the Community College of Baltimore County, he earned a bachelor’s degree the University of Maryland, College Park and then his law degree from the University of Maryland Frances King Carey School of Law.

In 2012, Gov. Martin O’Malley and Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake jointly appointed Cooper to serve as a commissioner on the city’s Board of School Commissioners. As chairman, he spearheaded one of the city’s largest school building campaigns, which he said will allow students to move from some of the oldest facilities in the country to modern digs.

Cooper established a small, successful firm, of which he is currently the principal attorney focusing on general business law, antitrust, consumer protection, employing, lending and securities law, among other topics.

He also became a coach at UM Carey’s mock trial team, mentoring more than 100 attorneys in civil litigation and even wound up hiring a few of the students he coached, Cooper said.

“I continue to teach and mentor students because I want the next generation of lawyers to be of the highest integrity and willing to give back themselves,” he said.