While I think I understand what you are saying could you explain your statement in a little more detail?
If you need it explained, you are resisting too much.
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."
Well! Guess things haven't changed THAT much.
LOL. This is a Seinfeld episode right?
While I think I understand what you are saying could you explain your statement in a little more detail?
Diversity, remember diversity.
pendulum swinging to WHITE AFFIRMATIVE ACTION?
Horrors, the firm is no longer a chocolate firm. Just as with Nagin, if that is not racism what is? We must stop this PC BS and all deal with life together.
There goes the neighborhood, how sick and disgusting. Maybe they can burn them out.
While I think I understand what you are saying could you explain your statement in a little more detail?
If you need it explained, you are resisting too much.
Cochran always had white partners, but they had heretofore been "silent" ones. They are now stepping forward to seize control.
You are exactly right. The Cochran Law Firm drafted the inititiave to change the three strikes legislation. If you read to the final pages, you learn that child molestation is classified as a non-violent felony and thus should not count as a strike. Give me a break!
Incredible.
Take this whole story and reverse the races. Can you imagine all the jumping up and down and hollering that we would see?
That's good to know. I briefly worked in the same building as one of his satellite offices and he would come around once in a while. Bright purple suit and hat, seven or eight bodyguards. Looked just like - well, it looked like a certain musical interlude in the most recent Academy Awards show. This guy was not aiming high for his client base.
The company is probably doomed anyway, who wants Jimmie Olson when Superman ain't around?
Thanks for the information. I have tried to know as little about Cochran as possible and was just relying on this article.
"If you hire a white, we must take flight!"
"The Bell curve can be denied, but it can't be resisted."
Neither can racism on FreeRepublic. Thanks for your contribution!
Johnnie Cochran was great in front of a jury of his peers. But I helped on the other side of an appeal once, where he was representing the plaintiffs. The legal writing was just terrible.
Do you think the racism at Free Republic is any worse than the racism in this article?
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