Jackie represents businesses and individuals in connection with claims of negligence; professional liability; products liability; safety and premises liability; and commercial litigation, and in business disputes. She works largely with healthcare systems and providers, drug and device manufacturers and distributers, national retailers, and amusement device designers and manufacturers.
Jackie, drawing on her 19 years of experience in litigation, develops a commonsense plan for each client and a highly-tailored strategy for each case. Utilizing that approach, she and her partners have had favorable outcomes including zero dollar and nuisance value settlements in products cases, summary judgments and voluntary dismissals of healthcare providers in medical malpractice lawsuits, a defense verdict for a local business owner in a breach of contract claim, and a take-nothing verdict for a manufacturer in a case alleging brain injury due to product design. Jackie is also focused on negotiation and early resolution of claims, when it makes sense for her client in light of the parties, the facts, the venue, and the current litigation climate. Jackie is an advocate with the experience to understand not only the law and legal trends, which are ever-changing in these times, but also to know your work and your industry as a whole, an can help you adapt your business and litigation strategy to the moment.
Jackie is also honored and proud to have been part of the pro bono team, along with Cooper & Scully Shareholder, Diana Faust, that worked on Michael Morton’s case with the New York Innocence Project for more than eight years. Jackie began investigating the actual innocence claim and working on appellate briefings while she was a law student. The team ultimately won DNA testing of critical evidence that eventually led to Michael’s release and exoneration and the conviction of his wife’s murderer for that crime as well as other unsolved crimes. Michael’s case also led to the first-ever incarceration of a prosecutor for hiding evidence and a change in the law governing prosecutors’ duty to disclose evidence – The Michael Morton Act. To learn more about Michael’s case, see In re Morton, 326 S.W.3d 634 (Tex.App.—Austin 2010), read Michael’s book, Getting Life, or visit the Innocence Project website at https://innocenceproject.org/cases/michael-morton/.
Jackie was born in New York and grew up in Florida. She studied liberal arts at Southern Methodist University on a merit scholarship and attended the University of Houston Law Center while working as a clerk at Cooper & Scully in Houston. She has practiced at Cooper & Scully in Dallas since 2005. Jackie and her husband have three daughters and a French bulldog. Jackie is a long-time, avid supporter of The Dallas Children’s Advocacy Center and she often presents on current legislative issues in the community and public school settings.
Texas, 2005
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, 2006
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, 2007
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, 2008
U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, 2008
J.D., University of Houston Law Center, 2005
B.A., Southern Methodist University, 2001
Selected as a Texas Super Lawyer® for 2020-present by Thompson Reuters Legal
Texas Association of Defense Counsel
Dallas Children's Advocacy Center
ASTM International
International Association of Trampoline Parks
Co-Presenter/Panel Member, "Understanding the COVID-19 Pandemic: Its Potential Impacts to Current & Future Health Risk Questions," Rimkus Webinar Series, June 15, 2021
ABA Program: A Step-By-Step Guide: Challenging the Use of Reptile Theory, live webinar, presenter (January 15, 2021)
Supreme Court of Texas Bars Claim for Wrongful Termination Based on Refusal to Violate the Michael Morton Act, Cooper & Scully Newsletter, Volume 22, March 2019
Reptile Theory, Cooper & Scully Newsletter, Volume 13, February 2017
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence: Professional Liability in Texas, 2017 TADC Winter Seminar, February 1-5, 2017
Attorney Immunity Wins Again, Cooper & Scully Newsletter, Cooper & Scully Newsletter, September 2015
The Freeing of Michael Morton, 31st Annual Litigation Update Institute, Sponsored by The State Bar of Texas (January 15-16, 2015)
Defending Michael Morton, 7th Annual Jolly Roger Hal Jackson Memorial Criminal Law Seminar (December 12, 2014)
E-Discovery in Construction Law, John Wesley Raley and Jackie Cooper, Third Annual Cooper & Scully Construction Symposium Seminar, January 2008
E-Discovery, John Wesley Raley and Jackie Cooper, The Cooper & Scully Transportation Seminar, June 2008
Metropolitan Properties of America v. Texas Fire Alarm, Inc., Cause No. 08-14688, Dallas County, Texas, 2010
Billy Gonzales, Individually and as Next Friend of Aiden Zachary Gonzales, a Minor v. 3 Atoms, LLC and Fun Spot Manufacturing, LLC, Cause No. 2017-524,895, Lubbock County, Texas, 2019
In Re 3 Atoms, LLC and Fun Spot Manufacturing, LLC, Relators, 2019 No. 07-19-00243-CV, In the Court of Appeals of Texas, Amarillo, August 14, 2019
Bryan Taylor, Melissa Taylor, Alan Tarrant, Kristi Tarrant, and Bethany Kendrick v. Eminent Spine, LLC, et al., Cause DC-16-12792, Dallas County, Texas, Motion for Summary Judgment, July 25, 2018
Alan Tarrant, Kristi Tarrant, and Bethany Kendrick, Appellants v. Eminent Spine, LLC, et al., 2020 No. 05-18-01129-CV, In the Court of Appeals of Texas, Dallas, January 15, 2020