In Memoriam

• Jurisdiction: United States,Federal
• Citation: Vol. 37 No. 4
• Publication year: 2021

In Memoriam

Georgia State University Law Review
lawreview@gsu.edu

GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW

Volume 37 Number 4 Summer 2021

IN MEMORIAM: BOBBY LEE COOK

The editors of the Georgia State University Law Review dedicate this Issue and respectfully offer the following tributes to Bobby Lee Cook, a friend of the Georgia State University College of Law and an inspiration to many in the Georgia legal community.

Ed T.M. Garland^* & Don F. Samuel^**

Occasionally, we celebrate an attorney who inspired a generation of lawyers. But rarely do we celebrate a lawyer who inspired multiple generations of lawyers. Bobby Lee Cook inspired members of the Greatest Generation, Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Millennials.

In many respects, he was "old school": trying murder cases in the mountains of Georgia and relying on defenses that are not in the books. Defenses like, "He needed killing and my client did it" (result: not guilty). Or "He called my client a son-of-a-bitch, so of course my client shot him" (result: not guilty). During one closing argument, he repeatedly implored the jurors in his rhythmic cadence to conclude that a witness lied about his client over and over, to which a juror finally stood and responded, "That's right, Bobby Lee."

But he also excelled in complex white-collar cases (civil and criminal), not the least of which was springing C.H. Butcher in a multi-million-dollar fraud case in federal court in Chattanooga (involving the largest failure of a banking institution in U.S. history at the time). And his legendary representation of the Rockefellers in their struggle to be adequately compensated for the State taking their land on Jekyll Island. And his representation of Georgia teachers in their class action case to seek relief (and money, too—lots of it) in the teacher's pension case. Those of us who were lucky enough to practice with him also learned that Bobby Lee Cook knew how to set a fee, and the client paid the money he demanded—lots of it.

But it was not just his victories that inspired so many of us. He was a friend; a teacher; a mentor; someone who invited younger lawyers to work with him in cases; a bon vivant; a rascal; a fighter (literally); as tough as the hickory trees on the mountains of his beloved Chattooga County. His ferocious cross-examinations left witnesses in tears, opposing counsel's strategy in shreds, and his clients walking out of the courtroom to freedom. Some judges fumed. More chuckled in admiration...