Cooper to be Appointed New County Counsel

A former municipal attorney and public defender for several Somerset County communities, William T. Cooper III will be appointed as Somerset County Counsel at next week's Board of Freeholders meeting.

Cooper, a 1979 Bridgewater-Raritan High School East grad, has been a licensed attorney in New Jersey since 1986. He will replace Thomas C. Miller, who was sworn in as a Vicinage 13 Superior Court judge earlier this month after serving as county counsel for nearly 20 years. Cooper has joined Miller’s former law firm and former law partners, William Robertson and Scott Rodgers. 

 “Bill Cooper has excellent credentials as a municipal attorney,” Freeholder Director Robert Zaborowski said. “His experience ranges from land use and public bidding to liability and public contracts. We’re confident that he will serve the county well as counsel.”

Founded in 1973, Somerville-based Cooper & Cooper became one of Central Jersey’s leading general-practice law firms, providing legal services to government and non-profit entities as well as to private clients in all business sectors. The firm now has merged with Miller’s former office on North Bridge Street.

Cooper has served as municipal attorney for Somerville and South Bound Brook, as public defender for Bridgewater, Warren and Bound Brook, and as municipal prosecutor for Bound Brook and for Middlesex Borough. He was appointed transition counsel for then Gov.-elect Chris Christie in November 2009.

He is a 1983 graduate of the University of Scranton and received his law degree in 1986 from Seton Hall University. Cooper, a Somerville resident, and his wife, Doreen, have two daughters, Erin and Maura.