Bios

PETER B. COOPER has been an attorney in New Haven, Connecticut for 36 years. A graduate of Yale College in 1960, and Yale Law School in 1964 with a Master of Urban Studies from Yale in 1965, Mr. Cooper served as Zoning Director of New Haven from 1965 to 1970 when he entered private practice.

Concentrating his practice in the areas of estate planning, environmental law, and planning and zoning, Mr. Cooper has been affiliated with many of the environmental groups in the State of Connecticut. General Counsel to the Connecticut Fund for the Environment for the past 16 years, he has also served as counsel to the National Resources Defense Council and the Environmental Defense Fund on various cases. He served as chairman of the Connecticut Chapter of the Nature Conservancy from 1978-1982 and 1987-1989, where he is now Trustee Emeritus. From 1990-1994 he started and co-taught the environmental law clinic at Yale Law School. He is a former director of the Connecticut Audubon Society and currently a director of the Woodbridge Land Trust and a member of the New England Advisory Council of the Trust for Public Land.

JAMES C. WHITNEY received his BA from Yale in 1964 and his LL.B. and Master of Urban Studies in 1968. He was staff attorney to the New Haven Redevelopment Agency from 1968 to 1970. Joining forces with Peter Cooper, he thereafter concentrated his work in private practice on real property transactions, trusts and estates and litigation.

Over the years he has provided representation to non-profit corporations and other legal entities on many aspects of complex legal problems including organizing such entities, securing recognition of tax exempt status, the procuring of tax exempt funding, preparing limited partnership agreements, negotiating and closing on property acquisitions, and preparing mortgage closing documents for conventional and government assisted projects. He provides legal representation in zoning, environmental and other regulatory disputes, organizes condominiums and planned communities under the Common Interest Ownership Act, and non-profit housing projects. He provides similar representation to individuals, including wills and probate services.