Cooper has spent the past 18 years of his career in Asia and most recently in Hong Kong where he led Freshfields' regional finance practice group spanning China to Nigeria. He also practiced with Freshfields in Singapore for 14 years covering jurisdictions from Indonesia to India.

During his time in Asia, Cooper gained experience on a range of transactions across the banking, infrastructure, project finance and energy and natural resources sectors in Australia, the Pacific Islands, south-east Asia, north Asia, the Caspian region, Africa and the Middle East.

Cooper's appointment follows the recent announcement that securitization lawyer Andrew Jinks will join the firm as a partner in August.