Cochran law firm beset by changes

By Betty Pleasant
WAVE Newspapers | Last updated: Mar 21, 2006 - 6:48:00 PM

Attorney Johnny Cochran

LOS ANGELES (NNPA) - A change has come over Johnnie Cochran’s law firm, which the Black community has loved for 43 years, and not necessarily a change for the better.

Longtime attorneys and staffers who help build the Cochran legacy are gone and have not been replaced, and White people are occupying leadership positions in his law firm that did not exist before he died March 30, 2005.

What is going on inside the Wilshire Boulevard 10th floor suite, and why it’s going on is a tale of two versions: The spin from the two Black lawyers who say they are in charge of the place, and the city’s Black firebrands and other lawyers who have had active associations with the late Cochran and his band of Brothers (and Sisters) throughout most of their careers.

Community activist Najee Ali frequently interacted with the Cochran legal staff and was one of the first to raise the alarm about the changing scene in the office. “None of the lawyers, clerks and secretaries I’ve been working with are there anymore,” he said. “And there are White people running the office.”

An attorney who was closely associated with Cochran concurs. “There are a lot of changes going on over there and they are not occurring voluntarily. People are being forced out and the partners have gone into legal areas where I know Johnnie said he did not want to go,” he said.

The attorney asked to remain anonymous because, “I don’t want to be accused of tearing down the great work Johnnie did,” he said. “But all the people who Johnnie loved and trusted and with whom he built the practice have been kicked out, and I think it’s disgusting.”

Mr. Ali and that attorney compiled a list of the Black staff members who, by their observation, have left the firm since Atty. Cochran’s death from a brain tumor at age 67.

The list includes Jan Bowers, the receptionist who was with the office for 20 years; attorney Eric Ferrer, managing partner who worked for the late leader for more than 20 years; attorney Shawn Chapman Holley, also a managing partner of long tenure; and Sonia Davis, Atty. Cochran’s personal assistant for more than 15 years. The status of Cameron Stewart, a Cochran attorney for more than 15 years, is unclear.

New people and new areas added to the practice are Salli Wright, the chief operating officer, and a Criminal Defense Division, of which Vincent Imhoff is the managing partner and for which Ron Miller is a Santa Monica-based consultant. Wright, Imhoff and Miller are White.

In an interview with Randy McMurray, the firm’s managing partner, and Brian Dunn, a partner, the pair unequivocally asserted that they are the only decision-makers for the firm’s home office. The two were asked the whereabouts of the missing staff, including when and why they left.

They said Ms. Bowers, the receptionist, got pregnant, left on maternity leave and did not return. However, our investigation uncovered that her pregnancy resulted in the birth of a daughter in 2003, after which she returned to the firm in January 2004, where she remained until May 13, 2005—the exact date of her 20th anniversary with the company—when she was “let go,” reportedly by a White attorney working out of Dothan, Ala., in a “restructuring” of the Los Angeles office.

They said Mr. Ferrer relocated his family to Maui “at least eight years ago,” leaving the impression that he had been away from the firm for that long. However, the Cochran Firm-Los Angeles website states that it has an office in Maui, which co-workers said he ran while also working with Johnnie Cochran in Los Angeles. The truth of the matter is that he left the Cochran law firm in December 2005. Our telephone calls to Maui in search of Cochran’s former right-hand man were answered with, “You have reached the law office of Eric Ferrer…”

In 1997, Cochran decided to go really big with his law office and deliver his renowned legal skills to people all over the country. He entered into an arrangement with two White lawyers in Dothan, Ala., Samuel Cherry and Keith Givens, and a Black lawyer in Memphis named Jock Smith. They formed a national law firm called Cochran, Cherry, Givens & Smith, LLP. Through a series of mergers, office expansions and regional partnerships, that firm became the behemoth Cochran Firm, the largest personal injury plaintiffs tort law firm in the country, with more than 150 lawyers available for and devoted to civil trial litigation.

According to colleagues who knew him well, Cochran’s White partners wanted to add criminal defense to the firm’s practice, but Cochran would have none of it. After having gained fame handling the O.J. Simpson and Geronimo Pratt murder defenses, Cochran decided to devote his practice solely to civil litigation and to dedicate himself and his business to representing victims of accidents, medical malpractice, product injuries, fraud, vehicle accidents, environmental and workplace injuries and other areas of wrongful conduct.

“Really Betty, you’re from L.A.?” Cochran’s colleague said. “Have you ever heard of him defending child molesters and rapists? He was adamant about not wanting to do that.”

The White partners ascended into the firm’s leadership when he died. Less than two months later, they led the firm into a merger with Imhoff and Associates, one of the nation’s largest criminal defense firms, thus creating a criminal defense section within The Cochran Firm.

The defense of child molesters and rapists around the country are now being provided in the Cochran name.

Despite the changes in the firm, Mr. McMurray said there are no non-Black attorneys in the Los Angeles office, that he is looking to hire three or four additional lawyers, and that “we want to make sure that we uphold everything that Johnnie meant to the African American community.”

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