Ashley Cooper is a partner in Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough's Charleston and Washington, D.C., offices, where he practices in the areas of energy law, regulatory and administrative law and litigation.

Mr. Cooper has previous experience with a national labor and employment law firm. Before that, he served as assistant general counsel for Federal Energy Regulatory matters and chief compliance officer for Federal Standards of Conduct for SCANA Corporation. He also has worked as legislative director and counsel to former U.S. Senator Ernest F. Hollings. In his role as legislative director, Mr. Cooper supervised the senator’s legislative staff and represented the senator’s interest in legislative and regulatory negotiations. Hollings was chairman of the Committee on Commerce Science, and Transportation, senior member of the Budget Committee, and a member of the Appropriations Committee during Mr. Cooper’s tenure.

Mr. Cooper also has taught as an adjunct professor at The University of South Carolina School of Government and International Studies. He is a member of the South Carolina Bar Association and the Charleston County Bar Association.

He earned his Juris Doctor from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1997, where he won both the second-year Moot Court competition and the USC third-year National Trial Competition. He was also a member of the John Belton O’Neall Inn of Courts. He earned his undergraduate degree in Economics from Clemson University in 1994.