Fourth Judicial Circuit Judge Collins Cooper was elected to the bench in November without opposition.
When he took the oath in January, he became the third member of his family to serve as a circuit judge in Jacksonville.
Cooper’s maternal grandfather, the late Judge William Durden Jr., was appointed to the circuit court in 1961 by Gov. LeRoy Collins. Durden became the consolidated city of Jacksonville’s first general counsel in 1968 after the city and county governments were merged. He returned to private practice in 1970, advising clients until 10 months before his death in March 2011.
Durden’s daughter and Cooper’s mother, Judge Mallory Cooper, is a former assistant state attorney who was elected to the Duval County Court in 1996. She was appointed to the circuit court in January 2006 by Gov. Jeb Bush and served until December 2015, when she retired.
Some of Collins Cooper’s earliest memories are of visiting his grandfather’s law office and chambers at the courthouse. During summer break in high school, he worked as a runner at his father’s law firm. Conversations at family gatherings often were about various aspects of legal issues.
“I grew up around the law, but most of my interest growing up was sports,” Cooper said.
He was a placekicker on the University of Florida’s 1996 national championship football team. When he graduated with a degree in criminology and ended his college sports career, Cooper was accepted to enroll at his parents’ law school alma mater, Florida State University.
“I have the best of both worlds,” he said.
After admission to the Bar in 2006, Cooper followed in his mother’s footsteps and got a job in the state attorney’s office in Jacksonville, where he interned while in law school.
“Mom was a prosecutor, then a judge and I gravitated toward that track,” Cooper said.
As he begins his service on the bench in family court, Cooper said he’s drawing from a lifetime of observing his grandfather, his mother and the many judges in whose courts he practiced law.
“I’ve seen different judicial styles. In the back of my mind, I was tucking away the things I liked,” he said.
The most important traits for a judge are “patience, demeanor, caring about people and caring about doing the right thing,” Cooper said.
U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Paul Glenn is retiring, effective upon the appointment of a successor.
Glenn has been a member of the bankruptcy bench in the Middle District of Florida since his appointment in 1993 when he served in the Tampa division. In June 2008, he transferred to the Jacksonville division.
From March 2003 to September 2011, Glenn served as the chief bankruptcy judge for the Middle District of Florida.
According to a news release from the court, Bankruptcy Judge Cynthia Jackson plans to request a change in her duty station to relocate from the Orlando division to the Jacksonville division to fill the vacancy created by Glenn’s retirement. The Circuit Court of Appeals is expected to begin recruitment for a successor judge for the Orlando division.
Todd MacLeod joined the Bachara Construction Law Group as a partner.
He was a partner at Cole, Scott & Kissane, where he focused on construction litigation. MacLeod also practiced general and commercial litigation.
MacLeod received a bachelor’s in commerce from the University of Virginia, an MBA from the University of Florida and his J.D. from Florida Coastal School of Law.
RezLegal, a Ponte Vedra Beach-based business and health care law firm, has appointed George McCaughan as CEO.
He will assume overall responsibility for the management of business operations, including decisions on marketing, information technology, financial and growth-related matters.
