Mary Quinn Cooper serves as national trial counsel for major corporations and defends product liability claims and class actions across the country. For the last 25 years she has represented Ford Motor Company and General Motors nationally in challenging cases with high exposure. Mary has also tried cases for various other manufacturers and Fortune 500 companies and has defended clients in professional malpractice matters.
Mary is a frequent speaker locally and nationally on trial practice issues. She has spoken before the Defense Research Institute, Oklahoma Association of Defense Counsel, American Inns of Court, Oklahoma Bar Association and Tulsa County Bar Association. She served as a faculty member for the 2005 International Association of Defense Counsel Trial Academy at Stanford University, the Oklahoma Trial Lawyer Association’s 12th Annual Oklahoma College of Advocacy, and the Oklahoma Association of Defense Counsel’s Products Liability Seminar.
In addition to her private practice, Mary chairs the admissions and grievances committee of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma and is an appointed member of the Oklahoma Bar Association’s Professional Responsibility Tribunal, a panel whose function is to conduct hearings on formal complaints filed against lawyers and on applications for reinstatement to the practice of law in the State of Oklahoma. She also received a mayoral appointment to serve as a civil service commissioner.
Mary’s experience and expertise have earned her recognition in the Chambers USA Guide to America's Leading Lawyers for Business, The Best Lawyers in America (bet-the-company litigation; commercial litigation; product liability litigation–defendants), Benchmark Litigation, and Oklahoma Super Lawyers, where she has been named to its list of “Top 50 Oklahoma Super Lawyers” and “Top 25 Women Oklahoma Super Lawyers.” She has been named "Best Lawyers' Tulsa Product Liability Litigation Defense Lawyer of the Year" in both 2011 and 2012, an honor only given to a single lawyer in each legal specialty in each community. She has also been awarded the “Golden Rule Award” presented by the Tulsa County Bar Association to a lawyer who exhibits the highest standards of fairness, integrity and professional work ethic.
Prior to joining McAfee & Taft, Mary was a partner with Tulsa-based Eldridge Cooper Steichen & Leach, a corporate law firm she co-founded in 2002.
Active in the community, Mary currently serves on the Dean’s Advisory Board for the University of Tulsa College of Law, on the board of the St. Philip Neri Catholic Newman Center on the University of Tulsa campus, on the advisory board of the Junior League of Tulsa, and as a trustee of the Saint Francis of Assisi Tuition Assistance Trust. She also volunteers for Christ the King Catholic Church and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Mary previously served as chairman of the Bishop Kelley High School Advisory Council and chaired the Bishop Kelley Annual Fund Drive, Bishop Kelley Auction, and Saint Francis of Assisi Tuition Assistance Fund Gala. She also chaired the inaugural Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Gala, which broke records for the amount of money raised for a first-time event. In 2009, Mary was awarded the Association of Fundraising Professional’s “Outstanding Volunteer Fundraiser” award.
In 2011, Mary was named to the inaugural list of Power Attorneys and Legal Professionals by the Tulsa Business Journal. The following year, she was recognized for her professional and civic contributions to the state by being named to the Journal Record's list of Leadership in Law honorees.
Mary and her husband have three children.
Mary has handled a number of high-profile cases. A brief sampling includes:
- Obtained summary judgment in a high-profile accounting malpractice case which was affirmed.
- Obtained defense verdict in a case in federal court in Arkansas that was prosecuted by Johnnie Cochran and his law firm. In that case Mary successfully defended a major automotive manufacturer in a products liability case where a woman who lost her husband and four children claimed that a defect in the vehicle caused their deaths.
- Handled class actions for various clients where nationwide classes have been certified.
- Obtained defense verdict in a multi-million dollar wrongful death action in Cleveland County, Oklahoma, where the families of five individuals who were killed in an automobile accident sued a major automobile manufacturer alleging a defect in the vehicles caused the accident and the resulting deaths.
- Obtained defense verdict for a major automotive manufacturer in lawsuit where a man who was rendered a quadriplegic following a rollover accident sued alleging that the roof offered inadequate protection in rollover accidents.
- Obtained defense verdict for a major automobile manufacturer in a wrongful death case where it was alleged that a driver died in a fuel-fed fire as a result of a defective fuel system design.
- Obtained defense verdict for a major automotive manufacturer in a wrongful death case alleging that a seat back was not strong enough to protect its occupants.
- Obtained defense verdict for two major motorcycle manufacturers in a case in Florida where it was alleged a product defect caused in a single-motorcycle accident. Jury verdict affirmed on appeal.
- Obtained summary judgment in favor of a major automobile manufacturer after successfully excluding plaintiff’s expert testimony in a case where a product defect was alleged to be responsible for a catastrophic brain injury of an 8-year-old. Judgment affirmed on appeal to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals.