The Cochran Firm is a law firm in the United States. It has about 300 attorneys and is ranked as the 141st largest law firm in the United States.[1] The Cochran Firm primarily does criminal defense and civil plaintiff work.
The firm has been named to the National Law Journal Plaintiff's Hot List which compiles the United States' top 12 plaintiffs' firms.[2][3]
The firm has 26 offices located in 15 states, including in Miami, Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Birmingham, New Orleans, Washington, D.C., Richmond, Virginia, and Columbus, Mississippi.[4]
The firm was founded by Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr. over 40 years ago.[5] Cochran died in 2005.
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The firm maintains a massive civil law division representing mostly injured plaintiffs. The firm handles products liability, medical malpractice, mass torts, pharmaceutical litigation, and premises liability.[6] The Cochran Firm has received verdicts and settlements totaling over $45 Billion.[7] 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.[8]
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.[7] 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.[7]
The Cochran Firm is criticized by some who believe the remaining partners are using Johnnie Cochran's name to market the firm.[9] 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 that this is no different from what the Cochran Firm is doing.