Johnnie Cochran

His father, Johnnie Cochran Sr. (October 20, 1916 – April 29, 2018), was an insurance salesman and his mother sold Avon products.

Johnnie Lee Cochran Jr. (October 2, 1937 – March 29, 2005) was an American attorney best known for his leading role in the defense and criminal acquittal of O.J. Simpson for the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman.

He often defended his client with rhymes such as "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit!"

during the Simpson trial.

Cochran was born in 1937 in Shreveport, Louisiana.

He was a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, initiated through the Upsilon Chapter and the fraternity's 45th Laurel Wreath laureate.

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."

The family relocated to the West Coast during the second wave of the Great Migration, settling in Los Angeles in 1949.

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.

After passing the California bar exam in 1963, Cochran took a position in Los Angeles as a deputy city attorney in the criminal division.

In 1964, the young Cochran prosecuted one of his first celebrity cases, Lenny Bruce, a comedian who had recently been arrested on obscenity charges.

Two years later, Cochran entered private practice.

Soon thereafter, he opened his own firm, Cochran, Atkins & Evans, in Los Angeles.

In his first notable case, Cochran represented an African-American widow who sued several police officers who had shot and killed her husband, Leonard Deadwyler.

Though Cochran lost the case, it became a turning point in his career.

Rather than seeing the case as a defeat, Cochran realized the trial itself had awakened the black community.

In reference to the loss, Cochran wrote in The American Lawyer, "those were extremely difficult cases to win in those days. But what Deadwyler confirmed for me was that this issue of police abuse really galvanized the minority community. It taught me that these cases could really get attention."

By the late 1970s, Cochran had established his reputation in the black community.

He was litigating a number of high-profile police brutality and criminal cases.

In 1978, Cochran returned to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office in the leadership position of First Assistant District Attorney.

Though he took a pay cut to do so, joining the government was his way of becoming "one of the good guys, one of the very top rung."

He began to strengthen his ties with the political community, alter his image, and work from within to change the system.

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, and joined Cochran, Cherry, Givens & Smith in 1997.

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 opposed tort reform.

Due to his success as a lawyer, Cochran could encourage settlement simply by his presence on a case.

According to Rev. Jesse Jackson, a call to Johnnie Cochran made "corporations and violators shake."

Cochran's well-honed rhetoric and flamboyance 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.

Cochran represented Sean Combs, Michael Jackson, Tupac Shakur, Stanley Tookie Williams, Todd Bridges, football player Jim Brown, Snoop Dogg, former heavyweight champion Riddick Bowe, 1992 Los Angeles riot beating victim Reginald Oliver Denny, and inmate and activist Geronimo Pratt.

He represented athlete Marion Jones when she faced charges of doping during her high school track career.

Cochran was known for his skill in the courtroom and his prominence as an early advocate for victims of police brutality.