A member of Davis Polk & Wardwell’s Litigation Department, Mr. Cooney has represented individuals and institutions in grand jury and other governmental investigations relating to a wide range of criminal charges, involving securities and insider trading, mail and wire fraud, tax, antitrust, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, government contracting, FDA violations, accounting irregularities and environmental accidents. As a prosecutor and defense counsel, he has tried numerous criminal cases to verdict before federal juries.

His assignments have included a broad range of matters. For example, he represented the Shell Audit Committee in the investigation of the re-classification of Shell’s oil reserves; the Siemens’ Audit Committee in an inquiry into improper payments; Philip Morris in the Department of Justice’s investigation of the tobacco industry; Finemeccanica in Texas and Delaware courts against a claim relating to a $5 billion Russian satellites project; the heads of passenger and cargo service for a major airline in a price-fixing investigation; the audit committee of an international hotel chain in an investigation of improper conduct by a high ranking executive; Exxon in state and federal criminal investigations of its oil spill in the Arthur Kill; a member of the law firm of Gordon, Hurtwitz, Butowsky, Weitzen & Shalov in a criminal tax investigation; W. Paul Thayer in an insider trading prosecution; Clark Clifford in the state and federal investigation of his role in the BCCI matter; Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette in an investigation of purported kickbacks to Commonwealth of Kentucky officials for municipal bond assignments; an executive of Appleton Paper in an antitrust grand jury; International Paper Company in a criminal price-fixing investigation; Warner Lambert in a criminal regulatory inquiry; and Sanjay Kumar, former Chairman of Computer Associates, in the criminal case involving accounting fraud. Because of the nature of Mr. Cooney’s assignments, many of his most successful assignments have not resulted in public charges and remain confidential.

Among Mr. Cooney’s noteworthy trials for the defense are his representation of Recognition Equipment in its acquittal for alleged bribery of the vice chairman of the U.S. Postal Board of Governors; the estate of Charles Shipman Payson in successfully rebutting a challenge to his will; and Winfield Dunseath in his acquittal at trial for alleged foreign currency fraud.

A Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, Mr. Cooney has acted as chairman of its Committee on the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. He has taught in the Harvard, Cardozo and Fordham law schools’ trial practice programs, and has lectured on white collar crime at various professional seminars and at Georgetown University Law Center. He served as a member of the Criminal Justice Act Panel for the Southern District of New York for more than 25 years and has represented innumerable indigent defendants in federal criminal cases over that period.

Mr. Cooney joined Davis Polk in 1969 and then served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1972 to 1977, becoming chief of the Narcotics Unit. He returned to the firm in 1977 and became a partner in 1980. He graduated from Indiana University in 1966, and in 1969 received his J.D. from Duke University School of Law, where he served as note editor of the Duke Law Journal.

Mr. Cooney is listed as a leading litigation lawyer in several legal industry publications, including Chambers USA – America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, Woodward/White’s Best Lawyers in America, American Lawyer Media’s Corporate Counsel: Best Lawyers Annual Guide to Criminal Defense Law and Legal Media Group’s Expert Guide to the World’s Leading Litigation Lawyers.