Chair of the Board : Mr. Edmund D. Cooke Jr
Edmund D. Cooke, Jr. is a partner in Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP’s Labor & Employment Practice Group. He specializes in diversity counseling and providing assistance with complex disputes and investigations from federal regulatory agencies and civil rights groups, as well as helping clients design and implement diversity plans and employment audits, crisis communication, and diversity supplier programs. Recently, he served as one of a seven member task force designated to oversee Coca-Cola, Inc.’s compliance with a consent decree resolving a lawsuit alleging race discrimination at the company. Ed is a sought after national and international speaker on diversity in the work place and was recently a featured speaker at the Diversity Best Practices Global Symposium in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He is the general counsel of the Executive Leadership Council, the nation’s premier leadership organization comprised of the most senior African-American corporate executives in Fortune 500 companies.
Ed counsels and represents Fortune 500 companies and governmental agencies in legal matters covering a wide array of employment issues, including Title VII (sex, race, amongst other types of discrimination), the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act. Ed spent more than eight years in counsel positions at the U.S. House of Representatives, advising and consulting with congressional committees and legislative staff throughout both houses of Congress regarding employment discrimination, civil rights, labor relations and other related matters. During that time, he oversaw all federal agencies dealing with employment discrimination laws and regulations. He also directed the preparation and enactment of all legislation and budgetary matters relating to civil rights laws and the enforcement of those laws.
Prior to his time on Capitol Hill, Ed worked for the Appellate Court Division of the National Labor Relations Board, where he argued cases in all of the United States Courts of Appeals except the 1st and 11th Circuits. He has also worked for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as Special Assistant to the Vice Chair and subsequently as Deputy Director at the EEOC’s Office of Field Services. He has also served as an adjunct professor at the Syracuse University School of Law. He received his law degree from the University of Michigan Law School and his bachelor’s degree from Kent State University. Ed also earned a master’s degree in international public policy from Johns Hopkins University.
