The Surface Transportation Board (STB) has announced that, effective Aug. 1, 2025, it has combined its Office of Proceedings (OP) and Office of the General Counsel (OGC), into one Office of Chief Counsel. Anika Cooper will serve as the Board’s Chief Counsel, and in that role will continue to serve as General Counsel and will also hold the responsibilities previously held by the OP Director.
The STB says it has combined these offices “to streamline and improve drafting and review procedures, which will benefit the Board and the public.” The Board also issued a decision on Aug. 4 granting interim delegations (download below) to the Office of Chief Counsel.
Previously, the STB had two legal offices: the OGC, which “provided legal advice to the Board on defensibility and other matters and defended the agency in court,” and OP, which “drafted agency decisions, processed filings and decisions, and administered the Board’s recordations database.”
In today’s decision, the STB says it finds that “all references in the Board’s regulations to OP or OGC will be treated as references to the Office of Chief Counsel; delegations to the Director of the Office of Proceedings will be deemed delegations to the Chief Counsel; and the responsibilities of the General Counsel under the regulations will be fulfilled by the Chief Counsel.” Pending regulatory revisions, today’s decision “waives the Board’s rules as necessary to facilitate these changes,” according to the STB.
The decision, the Board says, “also notes that correspondence and filings previously submitted to the Chief of the Section of Administration in the Office of Proceedings should now be directed to the Chief of Case Administration, Office of Chief Counsel, though the Board will continue to accept filings and correspondence addressed to either position.”
According to the STB, the Office of Chief Counsel will also house the Board’s Chief of Passenger Rail and Investigations, who will lead the Board’s cross-disciplinary passenger rail flex team. This team replaces the Office of Passenger Rail and “ensures the Board can efficiently continue to fulfill its statutory passenger rail investigatory and adjudicatory responsibilities.”
Cooper began service as Acting General Counsel in January 2024, following Craig M. Keats’ retirement. The Office of the General Counsel provides legal advice to the Board, defends Board actions in court (usually in the U.S. Courts of Appeals) and manages the agency’s ethics, FOIA and records managements functions.
“Anika has been a valued member of the STB team for nearly twenty years,” said former STB Chairperson Robert E. Primus in August 2024 when Cooper was elevated to General Counsel. “The agency has greatly appreciated her consistent work to advance and uphold our mission, and we will continue to rely on her skill and insight in serving the public interest.”
Cooper joined the STB in 2006 as an attorney in the Office of the General Counsel. She has held several leadership roles at the agency and has been the Deputy General Counsel since 2017. Before joining the STB, Cooper worked at the Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia in civil antitrust enforcement, and practiced antitrust law at a leading Washington, D.C. law firm.
Cooper earned a law degree from Yale Law School, and holds a Bachelor of Arts from Hampton University.
