Posted on 03/10/2006 1:55:30 PM PST by Bubba_Leroy
LOS ANGELES (NNPA) - A change has come over Johnnie Cochran's law firm, which Los Angeles' Black community has loved for lo, these 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 in Cochran's Wilshire Boulevard 10th floor suite, and why it's going on is a tale of two versions: The spin from the two African-American 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 Cochran and his band of brothers (and sisters) throughout most of their careers.
Community activist Najee Ali, because of the nature of his activities, 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," Ali said. "And there are White people running the office. I and other Black activists have stopped referring people to the firm."
An attorney who was closely associated with Cochran concurs with Ali's observation. "The office doesn't look the same as it did when Johnnie was alive," he said. "There are a lot of changes going on over there and they are not occurring voluntarily. People are being forced out and the partners over there have gone into legal areas where I know Johnnie said he did not want to go."
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."
Ali and that attorney compiled a list of the Black staff members who, by their observation, have left the firm since 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, Cochran's 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, Cochran's personal assistant for more than 15 years. The status of attorney Cameron Stewart, a Cochran attorney for more than 15 years, is unclear.
New people and new areas added to the practice since Cochran's death are Salli Wright, the chief operating officer, and a whole new 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 who unequivocally assert that they are the only decision-makers for Cochran's home office - the two were asked the whereabouts of the missing staff, including when and why they left.
They said Bowers, the receptionist with whom we and other members of the media have conversed many times over the years, got pregnant, left on maternity leave and did not return. Our investigation uncovered that Bowers' pregnancy resulted in the birth of a daughter in 2003, after which she returned to her duties at 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 Cochran's Los Angeles office.
McMurray and Dunn said Ferrer relocated his family to Maui "at least eight years ago," leaving us the impression that he had been away from the firm for that long. However, the Cochran Firm-Los Angeles Web site states that it has an office in Maui, which co-workers said Ferrer ran while also working with Cochran in Los Angeles. The truth of the matter is that Ferrer 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…."
McMurray and Dunn declined to speak of Chapman Holley and Davis because they have retained lawyers of their own to deal with these lawyers about their separation from the law firm. However, in an e-mail response to our initial inquiry about the changes, McMurray said Chapman Holley's "departure from the firm several years ago was while Mr. Cochran was at the helm…. And again, the partnership of this firm has not changed in over six years."
If that's true, why does the firm's Web site, which prominently reads "Remembering Johnnie 1937-2005" across the top, list Chapman Holley as a managing partner and displays her picture opposite Cochran's in a photo array of the firm's seven California licensed attorneys? She was obviously there after his death (as was Ferrer) because the site commemorates his passing. There may not have been any changes in the partnership in the six years that preceded Cochran's death, but there certainly have been plenty in the year since: two-thirds of the managing partners are gone, leaving only McMurray.
McMurray said Stewart still works for the Cochran firm. When we asked to see her, we were shown her name on a closed office door. Two other lawyers who are friends of Stewart say she is on the way out. "She's been told by management to finish up the cases she already has and then leave," her friend said. "Cameron is a very private person who doesn't readily discuss her problems, but she's also very astute and she's read the writing on the wall."
We did, however, meet Nicole Scott, an African-American former law clerk under Cochran who was engaged as a lawyer by the firm this year.
As to the White Ms. Wright, McMurray said she is the firm's only Caucasian employee and was hired in the newly created position of chief operating officer because her services were badly needed and she was the best person immediately available. McMurray explained that following Cochran's death, the firm launched an advertising campaign, or "an awareness campaign," in McMurray's words, "to let the community know that the firm did not die with Johnnie and that our services are available to anybody who has been hurt by another, not just by the police, and that we don't just handle high-profile cases."
McMurray said the campaign was so successful that the office became inundated with requests for services, making it necessary to implement changes in the firm to handle the increased volume of calls and to create a workable intake system. Those changes, McMurray said, included hiring an office manager - which is basically what a COO is -to keep the business running efficiently.
Nonetheless, Wright's employment ruffled the black feathers of some Cochran employees who maintain that she was hired without the position being open to other, preferably African-American, applicants. One employee said that when they complained, they were told no African-American was qualified for the position.
So, Ali et al. apparently saw the newly hired Wright busily managing the office and concluded the firm was being run by White people.
But Wright is not the only Caucasian associated with the firm, she's just one of the newest.
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.
The firm was in Cochran's name. He was the rainmaker, the boss. He called the shots. 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 Cochran died. Less than two months later, they led Cochran's 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, 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."
"Do you think the racism at Free Republic is any worse than the racism in this article?"
Both are ridiculous, but predictable. I don't know why I wasted my time with either...
Okay, someone really does need to rewrite this article and switch it all to read "Black". This is pure racism.
You probably would be. Actually, this stuff happens all the time when the powers in charge change. No surprise there. But the fact they seem to be so open that they are leaving because of race is interesting...in a bad way.
"And there are White people running the office."
Oh, the horror!
And what is it with socialists always capitalizing racial descriptors? Dead give-away.
And worse than that, I'll bet some of them White people are... gasp... J-E-W-S !!!!
*screams of horror*
This is a racist article about a law firm founded by a brilliant African-American trial attorney, lamenting the fact that African-Americans are being displaced from it by evil white men after his demise.
You are so intellectually bankrupt that the only thing you have to play is the race card, and you accuse me of being a racist?
"You are so intellectually bankrupt that the only thing you have to play is the race card, and you accuse me of being a racist?"
YOU ARE! K?
Learn to spell, moron.
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