(l-r) Fellows William H. Clendenen, Jr., William H. Trachsel, and James T. Shearin. Clendenen and Trachsel are former Treasurers and Shearin is the current Treasurer of the Connecticut Bar Foundation Board of Directors.

The James W. Cooper Fellows nominate outstanding Connecticut lawyers, judges, and teachers of law to become James W. Cooper Fellows. The Connecticut Bar Foundation then extends invitations to nominees who have been selected by the Fellows Nominating Committee and approved by the Board of Directors. Nominees who accept their invitation to become a Fellow commit to a pledge of at least $1,500 to the program. The Foundation recognizes Fellows at an annual reception in their honor and publicizes their selection.

View photos from the 2011 Fellow Reception

The Fellows Program is named in honor of James W. Cooper, who was a prominent New Haven attorney and a senior partner of Tyler, Cooper & Alcorn. He served as President of the Connecticut Bar Foundation from 1973 to 1975, the Connecticut Bar Association from 1957 to 1958, and the New Haven County Bar Association from 1948 to 1949, and he was a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. In 1982, Attorney Cooper was the recipient of the Charles J. Parker Award for distinguished contributions to legal services for the poor. Attorney Cooper left a generous bequest to the Foundation.

Currently, the Fellows are working on several exciting projects. These include:

• Oral History of Connecticut Women in the Legal Profession
• High School Essay Contest
• Connecticut Innocence Fund
• Truancy Intervention Project in New Britain and New Haven
• Mentoring Program for new attorneys
• Science of Eyewitness Identification symposium to be held March 16, 2012
• Symposium titled "Our History, Our Future: Celebrating Attorneys of Color in Connecticut" to be held April 13, 2012 at Quinnipiac University School of Law 

Past symposia include:

• 2011 - “Limited Scope Representation” co-sponsored by the Connecticut Bar Association
• 2011 - “Judicial Independence - A Crisis or Business as Usual?” co-sponsored by the Connecticut Bar Association
• 2010 - Law and Technology - Flash Forward or Lost: How Technology is Changing the Practice of Law
• 2009 - Bioethics and the Law - Legal and Ethical Issues at the End of Life
• 2005 - Future of the Legal Profession co-sponsored by the Connecticut Bar Association
• 2004 - The Expanding Roles of the Judiciary: Boon or Bane to Judicial Independence? co-sponsored by the University of Connecticut School of Law
• 2004 - The Significance of Professionalism for Connecticut Lawyers co-sponsored by the Connecticut Bar Association
• 2003 - Beginnings of a Law Career
• 2002 - Capital Punishment co-sponsored by the Connecticut Bar Association
• 2001 - Multidisciplinary Practice
• 2000 - Multijurisdictional Practice
• 1998 - Children and the Adversarial System
• 1996 - The Survival of Legal Services for the Poor in Connecticut

Fellows have been actively involved in the planning and execution of all of these projects.