Mr. Cooney received his J.D. from the Loyola University School of Law in 1979 and his B.A. from Georgetown University in 1976, after which he spent five years as a prosecutor with the Cook County State's Attorneys Office in the Felony Trial Division.

Mr. Cooney regularly handles complex personal injury and wrongful death cases which have resulted in numerous record-setting verdicts and settlements. He recently concluded the largest personal injury settlement in the history of Illinois, which resulted in obtaining over $200 million for his clients who were fatally exposed to asbestos products.

His jury verdicts include a judgment of $12.3 million in Barry v. Owens-Corning, which is the highest compensatory asbestos verdict in Illinois and a record verdict of $3.4 million for a woman injured in a bus accident in Jorgenson v. Whiteside.

He has been identified each year by the Chicago Lawyer among the top ten attorneys obtaining multi-million dollar results in its Annual Settlement Survey, which analyzes cases involving transportation disasters, product liability and construction accidents. He has been elected to the Board of Managers of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association.