Remember Superstar Lawyer Johnnie Cochran
Johnnie L. Cochran Jr., who became a legal superstar after helping clear O.J. Simpson during a sensational murder trial in which he uttered the famous quote "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit," died in his Los Angeles home Tuesday. He was 67.

Cochran, whose wife and two sisters were at his side when he passed, had been suffering from an inoperable brain tumor for some time, a secret held by his friends and associates to shield the lawyer's privacy, according to sources close to the family.

"Certainly, Johnnie's career will be noted as one marked by celebrity cases and clientele," his family said in a prepared statement. "But he and his family were most proud of the work he did on behalf of those in the community."

Simpson, reached at his home in Florida, praised Cochran on Tuesday, saying "I don't think I'd be home today without Johnnie."

He said other members of his defense team also deserved credit for his acquittal, but added: "Without Johnnie running the ball, I don't think there's a lawyer in the world that could have run that ball. I was innocent, but he believed it."

Rev. Jesse Jackson, founder of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, told BlackAmericaWeb.com Tuesday night that he was distressed by the death of Cochran, a man he’d known for 25 years.

“I feel so sad,” Jackson said. “His success in the O.J. Simpson trial revealed what we already knew: that he was one of the top trial lawyers in America. The O.J. trial gave him a platform to display his gifts, and he did so with style and substance.”

“He lifted the bar and standard that became a frame of reference for black lawyers. He would take cases that other lawyers wouldn’t accept – and he won," said Jackson. "In the early years, Johnny would give the L.A. police department fits by taking on police brutality cases and winning. Johnny Cochran stood for excellence.”

Despite the notoriety of his cases and clients like Simpson, Michael Jackson and Sean "P. Diddy" Combs, Cochran's early career was rooted in battles with the Los Angeles Police Department. He represented people like truck driver Reginald Denny, jailed-then-exonerated Black Panther leader Geronimo Pratt and people who'd been victims of police abuse, including Haitian immigrant Abner Louima, who was brutalized at a New York City police station. Cochran also won huge settlements and helped create policies within police departments that better served the public.

Kymberly Smith, a federal prosecutor in California, also knew Cochran and considered him a role model.

“It’s a tremendous loss when this kind of light goes out,” Smith told BlackAmericaWeb.com Tuesday. “He began his career as a prosecutor, then went into private practice as a defensive attorney and embraced justice from both sides of the street.”

“As a young black prosecutor looking to someone who is able to show such integrity and professionalism, he was an invaluable role model – not someone who you come across very often. He was open, generous and he enjoyed helping people in our community,” Smith said.

“He understood law and the practice of law,” said Reginald Stuart, a corporate recruiter for Knight Ridder newspapers. Stuart said he was stunned to hear about Cochran’s passing, adding that the colorful and loquacious attorney was an “inspiration” to others.

“He inspired people to do their homework, and if you do your homework, you’ll win,” Stuart said from his office in Silver Spring, Md. “He was flashier than his predecessors, but he was a serious practioner of law.”

Stuart believes that Cochran will most be remembered for his participation with the O.J. Simpson trial. Often called the “Trial of the Century,” it was the platform from which Cochran's already-successful practice catapulted into another stratosphere.

“The O.J. Simpson trial put Johnnie Cochran on the map,” Stuart said. “He was far from a one-hit wonder, but that was the trial that went to Number 1 on the charts.

“Of course he probably handled many more significant cases during his career,” Stuart said, adding that the trial garnered Cochran more business and allowed him to charge more in fees. “It was that trial that made him a legal star in a general sense.”

Philadelphia attorney Kelli Lofton was in her first year at Howard University’s School of Law when she and other classmates gathered in the student lounge to watch the Simpson verdict delivered on live television in 1995. Three years later, Cochran was the main speaker at Lofton’s law school graduation.

News of his passing left the 31-year-old Lofton “saddened.” She echoed the sentiments of a former law school professor, who would tell Howard students that Cochran set an excellent example of a brilliant lawyer.

“It’s different than Thurgood Marshall,” Lofton said, adding that, like the late Supreme Court justice, Cochran set a model for black attorneys to follow, especially in an age in which media coverage is so heightened. “Everybody saw Johnnie Cochran in their living rooms arguing [Simpson’s] case.”

Despite the fact that, post-Simpson, Cochran had been working on cases involving reparations and other serious matters, Lofton believes Cochran will best be remembered as the man who got Simpson off only because “we’re a nation of sound bites.”

“As an attorney,” Lofton added, “I do think he had a great legacy. He really brought to life what a black attorney can do in the courtroom.”

With his colorful suits and ties, a gift for courtroom oratory and a knack for coining memorable phrases, Cochran was a vivid addition to the pantheon of great American barristers.

The "if it doesn't fit" phrase he coined in the Simpson trial would be quoted and parodied for years afterward. It derived from a dramatic moment during which Simpson tried on a pair of bloodstained "murder gloves" to show jurors they did not fit. Some legal experts called it the turning point in the trial.

Soon after, jurors found the Hall of Fame football star not guilty of the 1994 slayings of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman.

"Johnnie is what's good about the law," Simpson said. "He loved the system. I always tell people, if your kids or your loved ones got in trouble, you would want Johnnie. Even his adversaries respected him."

Simpson said he kept in touch with Cochran after his trial and last spoke to him several months ago, when the attorney was released from the hospital.

"He was just about to go to a Laker game. A lot of us knew what the situation was, but you never saw Johnnie down or discouraged," he said.

"It's always sobering when someone is gone who is vital to your life experience," Simpson said. "I have a heavy heart."

Simpson said he had known Cochran since their daughters attended college together in Washington, D.C., long before his trial.

For Cochran, Simpson's acquittal was the crowning achievement in a career notable for victories, often in cases with racial themes. He was a black man known for championing the causes of black defendants. Some of them, like Simpson, were famous, but more often than not they were unknowns.

"The clients I've cared about the most are the No Js, the ones who nobody knows," said Cochran, who proudly displayed copies in his office of the multimillion-dollar checks he won for ordinary citizens who said they were abused by police.

"People in New York and Los Angeles, especially mothers in the African-American community, are more afraid of the police injuring or killing their children than they are of muggers on the corner," he once said.

“Johnnie Cochran was a proven trial layer and an extremely important person in the African American community,” Hilary Shelton, director of the NAACP’s Washington, D.C. bureau, told BlackAmericaWeb.com Tuesday.

“He clearly had the legal aptitude to represent high-profile celebrities, but he could also be found at NAACP workshops for civil rights lawyers," Shelton said, "sharing his knowledge and helping to bring other black lawyers along. His death will be a major source of pain in the black community. We have clearly lost a champion for civil rights and justice.”

Ron Walters, a political science professor at the University of Maryland who met Cochran two years ago, said Cochran consistently fought for those who were underserved, discriminated against and who could not afford high-priced legal counsel.

“He was a courageous attorney,” Walters told BlackAmericaWeb.com. “The profile of his practice was to represent the underdog against major institutions, and his style carried over to his national law practices that took cases for the least of us and fought their battles in court. This was admirable for a lawyer.”

Walters said Cochran was also a public supporter of the national reparations movement for black Americans.

“I didn’t expect someone like Johnny Cochran to enter the cause for reparations,” Walters said. “I thought it was extraordinary.”

(information taken from Blackamericanweb.com)