Clarence Cooper (born May 5, 1942) is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. Early life and education Cooper was born in Decatur, Georgia. He later moved to the city of Atlanta, where he graduated from David T. Howard High School in 1960. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Clark College in Atlanta, Georgia in 1964. He received a Juris Doctor from Emory University School of Law in 1967. He is a member of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity. Cooper received a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government in 1978. He also received a diploma from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in connection with a research proposal he developed. Military service He served in the United States Army from 1968 to 1970 reaching the rank of Staff Sergeant. He was decorated with the Bronze Star, a Certificate of Commendation, the National Defense Service Medal, the Army Good Conduct Medal, the Vietnam Service Medal, and the Vietnam Campaign Medal. Judicial career State judicial service He was an Attorney, Atlanta Legal Aid Society, Georgia in 1967. He was an Assistant district attorney of Fulton County, Georgia in 1968 and from 1970 to 1975. He was a judge on the City of Atlanta Municipal Court, Georgia from 1975 to 1980. Cooper was the first African-American appointed to a full-time judgeship on the Atlanta Municipal Court and the first African-American ever elected to a county-wide judgeship on the Fulton Superior Court. He was also the first African American assistant district attorney hired to a State Prosecutor's office in Georgia in 1968. Judge Cooper was the presiding Judge in the trial of convicted Atlanta child murderer, Wayne Williams, for serial killings that occurred in 1979 through 1981. He was a judge on the Fulton Superior Court, Georgia from 1980 to 1990. He was a judge on the Georgia Court of Appeals from 1990 to 1994. Federal judicial service Cooper was nominated by President Bill Clinton to be a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia on March 9, 1994, to a seat vacated by Richard Cameron Freeman. Cooper was confirmed by the United States Senate on May 6, 1994, and received commission on May 9, 1994, and he assumed senior status on February 9, 2009. Cases Cooper