Alex Pires

Alexander J. Pires, Jr. (born 1947) is an American lawyer and entrepreneur. He is married to Diane Cooley, a lawyer, and has two children.

Pires attended the University of Miami and then transferred to Boston University, graduating in 1969. From 1969-1972, Pires attended George Washington University Law School on a full scholarship, receiving his JD degree, with honors. In 1978 he received a master's degree (LLM) in taxation, also from GWU Law. Pires was drafted during the Vietnam War and entered the ROTC program at Georgetown University. He was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in 1972. In 1980, Pires was honorably discharged. His final rank was Major.

Upon graduating from GW Law in 1972, Pires was accepted into the Attorney General’s Honors Program at the United States Department of Justice. In 1977 he received the Attorney General’s Special Commendation Award for work on complex litigation. Pires then became a senior trial attorney in the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice where he took a lead role on the trial team responsible for the breakup of telecommunications giant AT&T. Pires also served for eight years on the Board of Directors of the Federal Justice Credit Union, four as President. In 1980 Pires was appointed by President Carter as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”).

Pires joined the firm of Barnett & Alagia in 1981, representing farmers and developing a specialty in agricultural law. Later, Pires formed the firm of Scott, Harrison & McLeod, which eventually became McLeod & Pires. In 1991 Pires joined the firm of Conlon Frantz Phelan & Pires, where he remained for 12 years. Today, Pires has a law practice with his wife, Diane Cooley in the firm Pires Cooley. Over the course of his career, Pires has been lead counsel in four class actions that have recovered over $4 billion for farmers.

In 1997, Pires and attorney Phil Fraas agreed to take on the case of 11 Black farmers who had been discriminated against by the USDA for years. These farmers had been traveling the country trying to find lawyers to listen to their story. As described by John Boyd, President of the National Black Farmers’ Association: “We visited with 14 lawyers, including Johnnie Cochran—all of them turned down the case. Pires and Fraas were the only ones willing to do it.” Pires told the farmers he believed their claims could only succeed if they could get several hundred other farmers with similar claims to join them in a class action. The claims involved were years, and often decades, old and the statute of limitations had long since expired. Pires theorized that if they could show USDA’s discriminatory practices regarding Black farmers was pervasive and longstanding the case would have wide appeal and the statute of limitations problem could be solved somehow. Pires, Fraas, and the farmers began touring the South, holding meetings to discuss and explain the case. Within a year they exceeded the goal of finding several hundred farmers who had been discriminated against by USDA. In September 1997 Pires and Frass filed Pigford v. Glickman in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, naming hundreds of plaintiffs with claims of discrimination and asking the court to certify a class. Within a few months, noted civil rights leader and attorney J.L. Chestnut of Selma, Alabama joined Pires and Fraas. Battling heavy opposition from the Government, Pires succeeded in getting class certification and in 1999 Pires, Fraas, Chestnut and their colleagues settled the case. Ultimately, over 22,000 people filed claims. By the end of the claims process, over 15,000 claimants would be compensated (an average of $50,000 plus $12,500 to pay taxes on the award) for a total payout of $1.1 billion —making it one of the largest civil rights cases in history.

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