Johnnie Cochran

Cochran was born in 1937 in Shreveport, Louisiana. His father, Johnnie Cochran Sr. (1916–2018), was an insurance salesman, and his mother sold Avon products.[7] The family relocated to the West Coast during the second wave of the Great Migration, settling in Los Angeles in 1949.[8] Cochran went to local schools and graduated first in his class from Los Angeles High School in 1955. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in business economics from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1959 and a Juris Doctor from the Loyola Law School in 1962. He was a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity and the fraternity's 45th Laurel Wreath laureate.[9][10]

Inspired by Thurgood Marshall and the legal victory that Marshall won in Brown v. Board of Education, Cochran decided to dedicate his life to practicing law. Cochran felt his career was a calling, a double opportunity to work for what he considered to be right and to challenge what he considered wrong; he could make a difference by practicing law. In A Lawyer's Life, Cochran wrote, "I read everything that I could find about Thurgood Marshall and confirmed that a single dedicated man could use the law to change society".

Despite setbacks as a lawyer, Cochran vowed not to cease what he was doing, saying: "I made this commitment and I must fulfill it."[11]

Return to private practice

Cochran's office, maintained in his memory at The Cochran Firm, 4949 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, California

Five years later, Cochran returned to private practice, reinventing himself as "the best in the West" by opening the Johnnie L Cochran Jr. law firm. In contrast to his early loss in the Deadwyler case, Cochran won US$760,000 for the family of Ron Settles, a black college football player who, his family claimed, was murdered by the police. In 1990, Cochran joined a succeeding firm, Cochran, Mitchell & Jenna,[16] and joined Cochran, Cherry, Givens & Smith in 1997.[17] The Cochran Firm has grown to have regional offices located in fifteen states.

In most of his cases Cochran represented plaintiffs in tort actions, and he opposed tort reform.[18] Due to his success as a lawyer, Cochran could encourage settlement simply by his presence on a case.[19] According to Rev. Jesse Jackson, a call to Johnnie Cochran made "corporations and violators shake."[15]

Cochran's well-honed rhetoric[5] and flamboyance[20] in the courtroom has been described as theatrical. His practice as a lawyer earned him great wealth. With his earnings, he bought and drove cars such as a Jaguar and a Rolls-Royce. He owned homes in Los Angeles, two apartments in West Hollywood, and a condo in Manhattan. In 2001, Cochran's accountant estimated that within five years he would be worth US$25–50 million.[21]

Before the Simpson case, Cochran had achieved a reputation as a "go-to" lawyer for the rich, as well as a successful advocate for minorities in police brutality and civil rights cases. However, the controversial and dramatic Simpson trial made Cochran more widely known, generating a variety of opinions about him.[1][19]

Cochran had often liked to say that he worked "not only for the OJs, but also the No Js". In other words, he enjoyed defending or suing in the name of those who did not have fame or wealth. Cochran believed that most glorious moment as a lawyer occurred when he won the freedom of Geronimo Pratt. Cochran said he considered Pratt's release "the happiest day" of his legal practice.[1] In the words of the Harvard Law School professor Charles Ogletree, Cochran "was willing to fight for the underdog."[15] Rev. Jesse Jackson believed Cochran was the "people's lawyer."[20] Magic Johnson proclaimed Cochran was known "...for representing O. J. and Michael, but he was bigger and better than that".[4]

In December 2003, Cochran was diagnosed with a brain tumor. In April 2004, he underwent surgery, which led him to stay away from the media. Shortly thereafter, he told the New York Post that he was feeling well and was in good health.[8][29]

He died from the brain tumor on March 29, 2005, at his home in Los Angeles.[8][29] Public viewing of his casket was conducted on April 4, at the Angelus Funeral Home and April 5, at Second Baptist Church, in Los Angeles. A memorial service was held at West Angeles Church of God in Christ, in Los Angeles, on April 6, 2005. His remains were interred in the Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California. The funeral was attended by his father Johnnie Sr. and numerous former friends and clients, including O.J. Simpson and Michael Jackson.[4][30]

On May 31, 2005, two months after Cochran's death, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered its opinion on Tory v. Cochran. The court ruled 7–2 that in light of Cochran's death, an injunction limiting the demonstrations of Ulysses Tory "amounts to an overly broad prior restraint upon speech." Two justices, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, said that Cochran's death made it unnecessary for the court to rule. Lower courts, before Cochran died, held that Tory could not make any public comments about Cochran.[31]

Johnnie L Cochran Jr. Middle School (formerly Mt. Vernon Jr. High) in Los Angeles

• On January 24, 2006, Los Angeles Unified School District officials unanimously approved the renaming of Mount Vernon Middle School, Cochran's boyhood middle school, to Johnnie L Cochran Jr. Middle School in his honor. The decision received mixed responses.[32]
• In 2007, the three-block stretch of the street in front of the school was renamed "Johnnie Cochran Vista".[33][34]
• In 2007, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles opened the new Johnnie L Cochran Jr. Brain Tumor Center, a research center headed by noted neurosurgeon Keith Black, who had been Cochran's doctor.[35][36]
• Cochran's family created an endowed chair, the Johnnie L Cochran Jr. Chair in Civil Rights,[37] at his alma mater, Loyola Law School of Loyola Marymount University.[38]
• Cochran’s footprints are featured on the Northwest Louisiana Walk of Stars in his hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana.

After the Simpson trial, Cochran was a frequent commentator in law-related television shows. Additionally, he hosted his own show, Johnnie Cochran Tonight, on CourtTV. With the Simpson fame also came movie deals.[39]

Actor Phil Morris played attorney Jackie Chiles, a character parody of Cochran, in several episodes of Seinfeld.[40][41] He was satirized in the animated sitcom South Park, in which he appears using a confusing legal strategy called "the Chewbacca defense",[42] a direct parody of his closing argument when defending O. J. Simpson. Cochran took these parodies in stride, discussing them in his autobiography, A Lawyer's Life.[43] Additionally, he appeared as himself in The Hughleys, Family Matters, The Howard Stern Show, Arli$$, CHiPs '99, Bamboozled, Showtime, Martin, and JAG.

Ving Rhames played Cochran in the miniseries American Tragedy (2000).

Cochran is mentioned in the 2011 musical comedy The Book of Mormon, where he is depicted as being in hell alongside Genghis Khan, Jeffrey Dahmer, and Adolf Hitler for "getting O. J. free".[44]

Cochran was portrayed in The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story (2016) by actor Courtney B. Vance. In the series, Cochran is depicted as fully aware that Simpson is responsible for the murders, and initially reluctant to take part in the case, believing that Simpson will be found guilty. Later, when the Fuhrman tapes are discovered, Cochran appears to shift his primary focus from getting Simpson acquitted to having the tapes released as proof of the LAPD's long history of police brutality against African-Americans, and allies with civil rights activists to threaten more riots across the country if the tapes are not released for the jury to hear and Simpson is convicted. After Simpson is acquitted, Cochran attempts to make amends with Chris Darden for repeatedly humiliating him, but Darden rebuffs him, instead warning that the acquittal is a victory only for Simpson, and that the LAPD will likely become more hostile towards the African-American community in retaliation for supporting and cheering for Simpson and believing the defense's baseless theory that the entire LAPD conspired to frame Simpson for the murders. During the celebration at the Cochran Firm, Cochran and his team see an interview with Bill Clinton on television, who promises a federal investigation into the LAPD's policies (though this particular interview was after the civil trial against Simpson), which Cochran refers to as the real victory. On two occasions, Cochran serves as a composite character with Gerald Uelman, who was omitted from the series: after Fuhrman's perjury is exposed, Cochran is the one who calls Fuhrman back to the stand and notably asks him if he planted the glove to frame Simpson, and Cochran coins the phrase "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit" by himself. Vance won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for his performance.

• The Cochran Firm's website
• The Cochran Firm California website
• The Cochran Firm - Nashville website
• The Cochran Firm's Washington, D.C. website
• Johnny Cochran Death
• Johnnie Cochran at Find a Grave