Cooper Shattuck

Roland Cooper Shattuck (born c. 1965 in Tuscaloosa) is an attorney, formerly chief counsel for Governor Robert Bentley and chief counsel for the University of Alabama System.

Shattuck earned a bachelor's degree in economics at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta in 1987 and completed his juris doctorate at the University of Alabama School of Law in 1990.

Shattuck practiced privately in Tuscaloosa with the firms Hubbard, Smith, McIlwain, Brakefield & Shattuck PC from 1990 to 1998 and Rosen Harwood P.A. from 1998 to 2011. Shattuck served for a time as an associate pastor, leading contemporary style services at the First United Methodist Church of Tuscaloosa.

Beginning in 1997 he taught at the Alabama School of Law as an adjunct professor. While there he helped organize a program to deliver pro bono legal services to people affected by Hurricane Katrina and the December 2000 Tuscaloosa tornado.

In 2011 Governor Bentley appointed Shattuck as his chief legal advisor. He left in 2012 to begin serving as chief counsel to the University of Alabama System. He continued to serve the state as special counsel for matters relating to the 2010 BP oil spill and chaired the executive committee of the Natural Resource Damage Assessment Trustee Council.

Shattuck also served as executive director of the University of Alabama System Gulf State Park Project, which was launched in 2014. The allocation of BP settlement funds toward development of conference and lodging facilities at Gulf State Park was opposed in a lawsuit filed by Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources commissioner Charley Grimsley and state auditor Jim Zeigler.

Also in 2014, Shattuck established the Alabama Council for Excellent Government (ACEGOV), a 501(c)4 organization which raised private funds to further Bentley's political goals. He served as chair of Leadership Tuscaloosa in 2016 and has served on the boards of Focus on Senior Citizens and the Black Warrior Council of Boy Scouts of America. He served as president of the Tuscaloosa County Bar Association in 2000-2001 and vice-president of the Alabama State Bar in 2015-2016.

Shattuck and his wife divorced in 2014. The couple had four daughters.

Preceded by: Ralph Smith II

Chief Counsel, University of Alabama System 2012-2016

Succeeded by: John Daniel (interim)

References

• Talbot, George (August 10, 2012) "Cooper Shattuck, key advisor to Gov. Robert Bentley, leaving for UA System." The Birmingham News
• Brown, Melissa (December 2, 2016) "University of Alabama System counsel resigns." Birmingham Business Journal