Bo Cooper

A graduate of Tulane University and Tulane Law School, Bo is a partner in the Washington, DC office of Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, LLP. Fragomen is the world’s largest immigration law firm, with more than sixty offices around the world. Bo leads its Government Strategies and Compliance Group and is a member of the firm’s Executive Committee.

Before entering private practice, Bo served as General Counsel of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, the predecessor to today’s immigration agencies within the Department of Homeland Security, from 1999 to 2003. He directed a legal program of 700 attorneys in 56 offices across the nation. He served in this capacity during two Administrations, advising the Commissioner of the INS, the Attorney General of the United States, the White House, other Executive Branch agencies, and the U.S. Congress on all aspects of U.S. immigration law. Bo also has extensive federal litigation experience, including several years as a trial attorney in the Civil Division of the Department of Justice. He has testified frequently before the U.S. Congress, and has made many television, radio, and print media appearances in the United States and abroad. While in government, he was involved in negotiating immigration-related agreements between the U.S. and other governments and acted as a U.S. delegate to international organizations.

Bo has taught immigration, national security, and related courses at the Michigan, Georgetown, and American University law schools, and he teaches asylum law as a member of the adjunct faculty at Tulane. He has an extensive pro bono practice, addressing asylum, Convention Against Torture, and a wide range of other immigration issues for clients in need of donated legal services. He has appeared regularly as amicus in key immigration cases before the U.S. Supreme Court; has served as an expert witness in federal litigation surrounding the reach of federal and state authority over immigration; and has advised the Department of Homeland Security through a Homeland Security Advisory Committee task force. He serves on the Advisory Board of the Migration Policy Institute, a leading institution in the field of migration policy based in Washington, DC.