by Miranda G. McLeod
Staff Writer
In 100 years, when the history of jurisprudence in Jacksonville is written, the Cooper family legacy will be on every page with Judge Mallory Cooper right in the middle.
Cooper is the daughter of former Circuit Court Judge William L. Durden, who was also Jacksonville’s first General Counsel. Cooper is also related to a half dozen attorneys in town. She made her way unconventionally into the law field, starting at the age of 30 with two children in elementary school.
Cooper got her undergraduate degree from Winthrop College in Rock Hill, S.C., with a merchandising degree. She moved around for a few years, raising a family, following her husband’s Marine Corps tour of duty before commuting from Jacksonville to Tallahassee to earn her law degree from Florida State University.
After law school, Cooper worked at the State Attorney’s Office as a prosecutor in the juvenile and special assaults units. After a decade, she ran for a vacant county court seat and won. She was commissioned Jan. 7, 1997 and is currently about to become the new judge in the Fourth Judicial Circuit.
A look around her chambers encompasses many of these tidbits of history, from her father’s to her sons’ to her own. Wood and crystal gavels from decades on the bench decorate her office. Football paraphernalia from the University of Florida’s 1996 national championship is everywhere and papers, piled on a couch, shelf and her desk loom, waiting to be reviewed.
Humorously out of place is a Halloween decoration on Symantha Juneau’s desk. Juneau, Cooper’s judicial assistant keeps the bowl with a garish hand protruding from it on her desk as a sensor, said Cooper. “It makes noise when you walk by — it lets us know someone’s in the office.”
Cooper has been in her chambers for nine years. She said she doesn’t get discouraged or disheartened as a judge. “There’s a point where you can’t believe what you’re seeing,” said Cooper. “It never ends. You keep hoping it will but it doesn’t and you always keep trying to help.”
Cooper says being a judge is very rewarding.
“It’s a real opportunity to help. Sometimes you don’t get that as a prosecutor or lawyer. As judges, we stay neutral, but we make decisions putting children in safe places,” she said.