Isaiah D. Cooper

About

Isaiah earned his law degree at NYU in 1991. Prior to law school Isaiah worked for two years (1986-88) as a paralegal at the products liability firm of Herzfeld & Rubin, P.C. He began his law career as a tax associate with Gordon, Altman, Butowsky, Weitzen, Shalov & Wein in 1991 (now defunct). From 1994 to 1996, he was associated with the tax, trust and estates and business boutique firm of Bergman, Horowitz & Reynolds, P.C. (now Withers Bergman LLP) in New Haven, Connecticut.In 1996, he joined Pepe & Hazard LLP (merged into McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter/PH, LLP in 2010) in Hartford to gain more experience with private placements and corporate transactions. Isaiah remained at Pepe & Hazard until December 2001, when he became of counsel to Gregory & Adams P.C. in Wilton, Connecticut
Isaiah founded Cooper Law LLC in New Haven, Connecticut at the beginning of 2004. He is admitted to practice in Connecticut and New York, and to practice before the United States Tax Court.
Prior to his career in corporate law, Isaiah was a professional trombonist. Isaiah Cooper performed as principal trombonist with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra in Israel in 1985-86, the Friedens Orchester (Peace Orchestra) in 1984-85, the Santa Monica Symphony in California from 1982-1984, and has done recording work in Los Angeles, California, Memphis, Tennessee and Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Israel. He has performed in marching bands, salsa bands, soul bands, klezmer bands, big bands, chamber music, and theatrical avant garde ensembles.
As an orchestral performer, Isaiah realized the benefit of hard work and considerable practice and preparation to be sure he got the music right. As a composer, Isaiah found it critical to select the instrumentation, style, tonality and meter in order to have the freedom within that structure to create. As an improviser, Isaiah learned how to take a wrong note or dissonance and make it lead to the right one, when to leave some silence, and when to play more. Isaiah applies the same principles to his law practice. He continues to prepare, to study and to learn. He has learned to select (find or draft) the right materials for each transaction, and his flexibility and understanding of when to use silence and when to speak helps him to negotiate effectively to solve or turn around difficult situations. After years of high-level performance as a musician, mainly as principal or first chair player, starting out as a lawyer, as a first year associate in a NYC law firm, was challenging for Mr. Cooper.  Now that he has attained a similar high-level of ability as an attorney, Isaiah loves what he does, and is passionate about bringing together the elements of each deal.
Isaiah grew up living on a small chicken farm outside of Middletown, New York. His family sold eggs to local businesses, through a local farmer’s cooperative in Sullivan County (in the Catskills) and from the drive-up window which Isaiah’s mom designed and had built into the mud room of their farmhouse (this was before banks and pharmacies had drive-up windows). Isaiah learned to make change selling eggs when he was approximately seven years old.
Isaiah majored in music at the State University of New York in Buffalo (SUNY Buffalo). He was originally enrolled in a five-year bachelors/masters program in music education, but, wanting to know more about making music before committing to teaching it, he transferred to a trombone performance major, getting his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, summa cum laude in 1978. Isaiah studied with Richard Myers, then principal trombonist of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra at SUNY Buffalo, and privately with Don Miller (of blessed memory), then the Buffalo Philharmonic’s bass trombonist. Isaiah played in a Salsa band (El Grande Sonito) during his freshman year, and in the Equinox Soul Band, a ten-piece band during his sophomore and junior years (see the picture below). Isaiah started doing a fair amount of teaching and freelance playing during his last couple of years in Buffalo.
Isaiah worked on his Master of Music degree at Youngstown State University from 1978 to 1980, studying with Vern Kagarice (currently at North Texas State University School of Music). During the summer of 1979 Isaiah toured the Great Lakes Region with the American Wind Symphony Orchestra, performing at waterfront parks from a motorized barge/floating stage.
Isaiah attended Memphis State University (now the University of Memphis) as a graduate/doctoral student from 1980 to 1982. He studied with Douglas Lemmon (of blessed memory) at MSU and did a great deal of teaching and performing in Memphis. During this period Isaiah was the “first call” substitute trombonist in the Memphis studios (where he recorded commercial jingles), the Memphis Symphony, the Memphis Opera, the Memphis Concert Band and other organizations. During the “Memphis in May” festivals in 1981 and 1982, Isaiah was able to perform with an all (not quite) African-American big band which included alumni of The Memphis Horns, The Ray Charles Band, Aretha Franklin and others. He even got to play for a rodeo in Memphis. During the summer of 1982, Isaiah worked as an usher at the amphitheatre at the then new Mud Island River Park. Rather than just ushering, Isaiah was often given the responsibility for transporting the entertainment to and from the facility. In this connection he met Al Jarreau, David Sanborn, Donny Osmond, Hal Holbrook and the members of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.
Isaiah decided to continue his doctoral studies at the University of Southern California and transferred there for the fall semester of 1982. He spent two years (from 1982 to 1984) in the L.A. area during which time he completed significant course work (and performances) towards a doctor of musical arts degree. Isaiah studied with Dr. Terry Cravens at USC and privately with Ralph Sauer, principal trombonist in the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. During these years, Isaiah also taught and freelanced extensively, performing as principal trombonist with the Santa Monica Symphony, the Korean Orchestra of Los Angeles, the Japanese Orchestra of Los Angeles and the Orchestra of the Barrio. He also put significant energy into composing and conducting, and premiered a number of new compositions, including ones he wrote. His improvisational avant garde band, Concurrents, did a live broadcast of music written by its members on public radio station KPFK in Southern California in 1984.
Isaiah received a grant from the German Academic Exchange Service and spent from August 1984 until July 1985 in Germany, two months studying German in Freiburg, and ten months studying trombone with Herr Professor Dr. Armin Rosin (as well as freelancing in Stuttgart and around Germany). Isaiah played with a Salsa band (again) in Stuttgart. This band included players from Puerto Rico, Colombia, Greece, Peru, Argentina and Germany, in addition to Isaiah. He was also able to premier several compositions, both his own and pieces by others, including a piece for three alphorns (remember the Ricola cough drops commercial?), brass and percussion.
In the spring of 1985, Dr. Rosin did a series of recitals in Israel and discovered that the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra (JSO) needed a new principal trombonist. The JSO’s music director, Gary Bertini, was also the conductor of the West German Radio Orchestra, so Isaiah was able to audition for the job in Jerusalem while still in Germany. The following year (1985-86) Isaiah performed as principal trombonist for the JSO and freelanced with a big band from Tel Aviv, the Israel Chamber Orchestra, and with his section mates playing trombone trios and quartets (with a talented student).
The picture of Isaiah in white tie and tails is in his apartment in Jerusalem, just before a JSO concert.
At the end of Isaiah’s year in Jerusalem, the JSO did a tour in Germany, the first time since World War II and the Nazi genocide of European Jewry (among others) that a Jewish orchestra performed there.
Isaiah returned to the United States in the summer of 1986. He took a paralegal position at Herzfeld and Rubin (a products liability defense firm representing Volkswagen of America and most of the other automobile manufacturers) and moved in with his brother in Park Slope. He met his wife, Lauri Lowell, at the Park Slope Jewish Center. They got married at Park Slope Jewish Center in June of 1988 and Isaiah began law school two months later.
Isaiah lives in Hamden, CT.