Vision, a wide breadth of experience, and an unrelenting pursuit of the client's best interests are the hallmarks of Attorney Howard Gregory Cooley’s legal service. Mr. Cooley is a military law/national security, government contracts, and personal injury law attorney. Mr. Cooley has been a guest on public radio station WEAA, 89.3 FM in Baltimore, MD, where he commented on military affairs, legal matters and homeless children.
Co-counsel on the nationally celebrated case of Chaplain Henry Vinson Plummer, the first African-American chaplain in the Army who was wrongfully discharged from the Army over one hundred years ago in the 1890s, Mr. Cooley is one of the most knowledgeable practitioners in the specialized field of corrections of military records. He was interviewed in a Public Broadcasting Service television program (documentary) which aired in Washington, DC, regarding his legal work on Plummer case.
The correction
of military records field includes appeals from active duty service
members, former service members and veterans to the Service Boards for
Correction of the Army, Air Force, Coast Guard, Navy, Marine Corps,
and Public Health Service; as well as the Service Discharge Review Boards,
and administrative appeals before military agencies.
A member of the Virginia State Bar, American Bar Association, National
Bar Association, and Federal Bar Association, Mr. Cooley also serves
as a faculty member of a local college teaching national security and
business law. He has also taught law office management, ethics, civil
procedure, criminal justice, the history of homicide and paralegal studies.
Mr. Cooley is a retired Army colonel, whose last duty assignment was with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs, where he was a member of the Army Discharge Review Board, a member of the Army Parole and Clemency Board, a member of the Army Physical Disability Review Board and legal advisor to the Army Board for Correction of Military Records. As a board member responsible for adjudicating cases on behalf of the Secretary, Mr. Cooley evaluated case files, heard oral presentations from applicants and their lawyers in cases in which personal appearances were granted, and voted in approximately over 2,000 cases. As a result, Mr. Cooley is very familiar with decision-making at the Secretariat level, effective arguments to be made, and is at ease communicating at the Service Secretary level.
For a listing of some of the subjects included in Mr. Cooley’s Military Records Correction Law practice, please see Figure 1, below.
As a
former general counsel (staff judge advocate) and deputy general counsel
to military installations, Mr. Cooley is intimately familiar with the
decision-making process at high command levels, understands the factors
leading to command decisions, and knows how to engage in straight talk
with command leaders.
As a prior the chief of staff of the Army's insurance company (Claims
Service), Mr. Cooley knows the decision points involved in resolving
medical malpractice claims under the Federal Tort Claims Act. Further,
at the Claims Service Mr. Cooley oversaw the re-editing and publication
of the Claims Service's regulation on claims adjudication, and was the
editor-in-chief of the Disaster Claims Guidebook Series, U.S.
Army Claims Service, October 1997.
As a previous government contracts litigator, Mr. Cooley successfully
represented the interests of the taxpayers against the some of the top
civilian contracts firms. He understand the problems that Government
and contractors face in the contracting process, and knows how to resolve
complex problems. His largest case was involved a $50 million dispute.
As a former prosecutor, criminal defense attorney, and appellate attorney,
Mr. Cooley participated in creating aspects of the foundation of military
criminal law in cases covering the spectrum from murder to minor military
offenses. He argued numerous appellate cases before the Court of Appeals
for the Armed Forces and Army Court of Appeals. Cases he argued before
the appellate courts included speedy trial, juries, criminal procedure,
constitutional standards, insanity, judge's instructions, evidentiary
rulings, government appeals, writ of mandamus, and extraordinary writs.
While assigned to the Government Criminal Appeals Division, Mr. Cooley
served in the extraordinary writs branch, and as one of the leaders
in the field of grounds for government appeals co-authored an article
published in the Army Lawyer. The citation is Cooley, Howard
& Cooley, Bettye Scott, The Role of the Prosecutor in Government
Appeals, The Army Lawyer, August 1986.
As a former associate professor of law and director of constitutional
law at the US Military Academy, West Point, NY, Mr. Cooley was the editor
of Constitutional Law Deskbook for the Cadet: Text, Cases and Problems,
Law 301, Department of Law, USMA (1988-1989).
Mr. Cooley's military assignment locations have included West Germany,
South Korea, South Africa, continental US and Hawaii.
Prior to entering the military, Mr. Cooley was appointed by the Governor
of Virginia as a Commonwealth Intern, where he served as an assistant
budget analyst and assistant personnel analyst. He also had many years
of service in the law firm of his father and brother.
Mr. Cooley holds a Master of Laws Degree in Military Law from The Judge
Advocate General’s School, Charlottesville, VA. He earned a J.D.
(Juris Doctor) degree from The University of Virginia School of Law
(1979), where he was an Earl Warren Scholar. Mr. Cooley is a summa
cum laude graduate from Virginia Union University (1975), Richmond,
VA, where he was the president of the student government. He is also
a graduate of The Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth,
KS (1993-1994).
Mr. Cooley is a licensed Virginia attorney (1979) admitted to practice before the US Supreme Court, Supreme Court of Virginia, Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, and various federal and military courts.
Figure
1
Military Records Correction Law
Practice Areas of Mr. Cooley
The following chart provides the reader with a more concrete idea of
the specialized field of Military Records Correction Law. The chart
below lists some of the subjects, but not all, in which Mr. Cooley has
experience and now practices.
| Academies, Military Personnel Issues & Discipline |
Eliminations Separation Proceedings & Show Cause Boards |
Promotion – Nonselection
Challenges to a Military Service’s decision to nonselect an officer or noncommissioned officer |
| Article 15s Nonjudicial Punishment |
Efficiency Reports |
Reductions or Demotions in Rank & Grade |
| Appeals of Administrative Decisions & Courts-Martial Convictions |
Federal Tort Claims Act & Military Medical
Malpractice Compensation for Botched Military Medical Care to Family Members; Investigation; Memorandum in Support of Relief; Negotiations; and Appeal |
Reserve Affairs Adverse Personnel Issues |
| Back Pay | Federal Court Litigation Challenging: Military Medical Malpractice Decisions; Final Rulings by Service Secretaries through Boards for Correction of Military Records; Final Decisions by the Defense Financial & Accounting Service; & Other Final Administrative Decisions |
Reprimands |
| Correction of Military Records,
Boards for Application, Memorandum in Support of Relief, Personal Appearance & Appeal |
Financial Disputes: Challenges to Rulings by the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, including Alleged Overpayments, Collections, Demands for Reimbursement, Ruining Credit by Reports to Credit Services, and Other Matters |
ROTC Debt |
| Clemency & Parole Prisoner & Inmate Issues; Petitions for Parole & Personal Appearance Before Parole Board |
Medical Evaluation Boards | Security Clearances Denial, Suspension & Revocation |
| Courts-Martial Trial & Appeal |
National Guard and State Militia Adverse Personnel Matters, including Selective Retention Boards | Service School Personnel Personnel Issues & Discipline |
| Disability Physical, Mental & Eligibility |
Pardon, Presidential | Whistleblower Victims of Retaliation, Reprisal and Sanctions for Disclosing Information or Raising Allegations |
| Discharge Review Boards Requests to Change Records of Separation, Grounds for Separation, Characterization of Service, and Type of Discharge; and Applications, Personal Appearances & Appeals |
Physical Evaluation Boards | Other Issues |