The Cochran Firm

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The Cochran Firm is one the largest Plaintiff's litigation firms in the United States.^[1] With 300 attorneys it is ranked as the 141st largest law firm in America.^[2] The firm has been named to the prestigious National Law Journal's Plaintiff's Hot List which compiles the nations top 12 plaintiff's firms.^[3] ^[4] The Firm, as it is also known, has offices across the country including Miami, Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Birmingham, New Orleans and Washington, D.C.^[5] The firm was founded by the late Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr. over 40 years ago.^[6]

1 Civil Practice
2 Criminal Defense Practice
3 Firm Model
4 Criticism
5 References

[edit] Civil Practice

The Firm maintains a massive civil law division representing mostly injured plaintiffs. Aside from personal injury cases The Firm handles products liability, medical malpractice, mass torts, pharmaceutical litigation and premises liability.^[7] The Cochran Firm has received verdicts and settlements totaling over $45 Billion.^[8] The partners of the firm have won 10 verdicts in excess of $100 Million and more than 35 over $10 Million. In 2004 one of the founding partners, Jock Smith, helped his client retain a verdict of $1.6 Billion, the largest jury verdict in 2004.^[9]

[edit] Criminal Defense Practice

The Cochran Firm also has a criminal defense section. Notable clients include: Sean "Puffy" Combs, O.J. Simpson, Snoop Dogg, Michael Jackson, Tupac Shakur, Todd Bridges, Riddick Bowe, Jim Brown and Latrell Sprewell.^[10] More recently The Firm was counsel in the acquittal of former HealthSouth CEO, Richard Scrushy of all white collar charges involved in allegedly directing a massive $2.7 Billion earnings overstatement, the only successful defense of a defendant charged under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.^[11]

[edit] Firm Model

The Cochran Firm represents a trend in the legal profession to consolidate. The reason The Firm is unique is because it is a Plaintiff's Firm. Most Plaintiff's Firms are much smaller than their civil defense counterparts and therefore have nowhere near the resources. The Cochran Firm is an exception. The Firm can match corporate defendants dollar for dollar and other Plaintiff's firms are taking note.

[edit] Criticism

The Cochran Firm is criticized by some who believe the remaining partners are using Johnnie Cochran's name to market the firm.^[12] The partners of the firm counter this by stating that older more traditional law firms have been around for over 100 years and still use the names of the founding partner(s). Also, some have compared the Cochran Firm to a franchise, selling the "Cochran name" to the highest bidder. The Firm counters this by noting that many large defense firms are "merging" to expand their client base and this is no different from what the Cochran firm is doing.