Cowan, Mo, 1969-

<p>William Maurice Cowan (born April 4, 1969) is an American lawyer who served as a United States Senator from Massachusetts from February 1, 2013, to July 16, 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as legal counsel and chief of staff to Governor Deval Patrick. Patrick appointed him on an interim basis to fill the vacancy left by fellow Democrat John Kerry, who resigned to become U.S. Secretary of State.</p>

<p>Cowan declined to run in the 2013 special election to complete the remainder of Kerry's term. He was succeeded by fellow Democrat Ed Markey. Cowan was the eighth African-American U.S. Senator and the second from Massachusetts after Edward Brooke. He was one of three African-American U.S. Senators in the 113th Congress, along with Republican Senator Tim Scott from South Carolina and Democrat Cory Booker from New Jersey, although he did not serve alongside Booker, who took office on October 31, 2013.</p>

<p>William “Mo” Cowan was appointed to the U.S. Senate by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick on February 1, 2013, to succeed Senator John Kerry who had resigned to become Secretary of State in the Barack Obama administration. Cowan was the first African-American Senator to serve from the state of Massachusetts since Edward Brooke left office in 1979. “The reason I am standing here is not because I am a person of color, an African-American,” Cowan said just before taking office. “I believe the governor, as he has indicated, has the confidence I will do the job he is sending me to do.” With Tim Scott of South Carolina having been appointed to the Senate a month earlier, Cowan’s appointment marked the first time in U.S. history that two African-American Senators served concurrently. Scott and Cowan were, respectively, the 7th and 8th African-American Senators in the chamber’s history.</p>

<p>William Maurice (Mo) Cowan was born on April 4, 1969, in Yadkinville, North Carolina, to a seamstress, Cynthia Cowan, and her husband, a machinist. Growing up in the post Civil Rights era, Mo Cowan nevertheless experienced overt acts of racial discrimination. The Ku Klux Klan burned a cross and distributed literature in his home town, and even marched on his local high school, Forbush High. In 1991, Cowan graduated from Duke University in North Carolina with a degree in sociology. He moved to Boston, Massachusetts, to pursue a degree in law. “I felt I needed to get beyond North Carolina and see the rest of the world,” he said. Cowan graduated with a J.D. from Northeastern University in 1994. He remained in Boston where he joined several reputable law firms as a litigation associate, and then as partner until 2009. Cowan and his wife Stacy have two sons, Miles and Grant.</p>

<p>Governor Patrick and Cowan first met in the 1990s, but it was not until 2009 that Governor Patrick asked Cowan to join his administration as his chief legal counsel. From 2009 to 2011, Cowan advised Patrick on a host of issues including legislation and policy, the appointment of judges, and general legal matters. In 2011 he became Patrick’s chief of staff and in 2013 his senior advisor. When Senator Kerry accepted his cabinet appointment and resigned from the Senate, Governor Patrick chose Cowan to fill the vacancy, making him the interim Massachusetts Senator.</p>

COWAN, William (Mo), a Senator from Massachusetts; born in Yadkinville, N. C., April 4, 1969; graduated Duke University, A.B., 1991; graduated Northeastern University School of Law, J.D., 1994; law partner; legal counsel and chief of staff to Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick 2009-2012; appointed as a Democrat to the United States Senate on February 1, 2013, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of John F. Kerry, and served until July 15, 2013, a successor having been chosen in a special election; not a candidate for election to the unexpired portion of the term.

<p>Lawyer and political leader William “Mo” Cowan was born on April 4, 1969 in Yadkinville, North Carolina to machinist William Hall and seamstress Cynthia Cowan. In 1987, Cowan graduated from Forbush High School in East Bend, North Carolina. He earned his A.B. degree in sociology from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina; and received his J.D. degree from Northeastern University School of Law in Boston, Massachusetts in 1994.</p>

<p>From 1997 to 2009, Cowan served on the litigation team at the law firm of Mintz Levin in Boston, Massachusetts, eventually becoming a partner. He served as an advisor to both Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr. In 2009, he became chief legal counsel to Massachusetts Governor Deval L. Patrick, where he oversaw all legal operations for the Governor’s office. Cowan then served as Governor Patrick’s chief of staff in 2011, where he helped develop the governor’s budget and pass legislation like the Expanded Gaming Act. Governor Patrick then appointed Cowan as interim United States Senator until July 15, 2013. Cowan was the second African American senator to represent Massachusetts, as well as the first African American U.S. Senator to serve concurrently with another African American senator. Cowan chaired the Subcommittee on Nutrition, Specialty Crops, Food and Agricultural Research, and sponsored several bills during his service. After his time in the U.S. Senate, Cowan joined the Boston law firm of Mintz Levin as counsel, and served as president and chief executive officer of ML Strategies, LLC.</p>

<p>Cowan was a fellow at the Harvard University Institute of Politics in 2013. He also served as president of the Massachusetts Black Lawyers Association, president of Northeastern University’s School of Law Alumni/ae Association Board of Directors, and as an active member of the United States Association of Former Members of Congress. Cowan sat on the Board of Trustees at Northeastern University, Massachusetts General Hospital, and The Chesnut School.</p>