President – Elect
Judge Jana J. Edmondson-Cooper was appointed to serve as a full-time judge on the Cobb County Magistrate Court in 2022. A career public servant, immediately prior to her appointment Judge Edmondson-Cooper served as a Senior Trial Attorney (Bilingual) at the U.S. Department of Labor-Office of the Solicitor (“DOL”) where she prosecuted complex labor and employment enforcement matters on behalf of the Secretary of Labor focusing on cases involving violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act, the “H” provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Act, the Mine Safety and Health Act, and other federal labor laws. Her practice also included defensive employment litigation . In 2021 she received the Secretary of Labor’s Willard Wirtz Legacy Award, a national award which recognizes exceptional performance and accomplishments in public service that exemplifies accountability, responsibility, and emerging leadership skills that display the promise of future leadership in the spirit of former Secretary of Labor Willard Wirtz. Prior to her appointment to the DOL, Judge Edmondson-Cooper served as a Staff Attorney (Bilingual) at Georgia Legal Services Program (“GLSP”) for nearly a decade representing indigent clients in rural Georgia, a significant number of whom were limited English proficient (“LEP”), in family law (often involving domestic violence), housing law, consumer law, education law, health law, wills and estates, and public benefits matters.
As a former legal interpreter, legal aid attorney, and federal prosecutor, Judge Edmondson-Cooper has spent a significant amount of time working to alleviate language access & other critical access to justice (“A2J”) issues. With over a decade of A2J experience, works with A2J stakeholders nationwide to improve access, promote equity, and preserve/ensure justice for all. Judge Edmondson-Cooper has led and contributed to the development of local, state, and federal A2J policies and the development of state and national curricula for training attorneys and judges on a variety of A2J issues. During her tenure at GLSP, Judge Edmondson-Cooper frequently provided trainings to law enforcement (POST-certified), school districts, the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, and other entities across the state on domestic violence and language access, including contributing as a subject-matter expert to the Georgia Domestic Violence Bench Book. In 2013, she co-founded Georgia’s first comprehensive access to justice/language access-centered training – Eliminating Barriers to Justice – for lawyers, judges, court personnel, interpreters, and other access to justice stakeholders. Over the past decade, she has frequently served as faculty at several annual trainings sponsored by ICJE and the Councils of [Georgia] Superior, State, and Magistrate Judges. Additionally, appointed by the Supreme Court of Georgia, Judge Edmondson-Cooper is a member of the Judicial Council of Georgia’s Standing Committee on Interpreters (fka Supreme Court Commission on Interpreters), where she led the development of the Court’s Model Administrative Protocol for the Provision of Language Assistance to Limited English Proficient and the Deaf/Hard of Hearing Persons in Georgia Courts (“MAP“) released in 2020. The first of its kind in Georgia, and widely believed to be the first of its kind in any non-unified court system in the nation, the MAP is a comprehensive guide which aids Georgia’s courts in ensuring LEP persons and persons who are Deaf/Hard of Hearing have meaningful access to justice. She is also the author of several A2J publications including Georgia’s first benchbook chapter dedicated to the provision of qualified interpreters in civil and criminal proceedings, subsequently adopted by Georgia’s Magistrate, Superior, State, Municipal, and Probate Courts.