A Lawyer's Life. . - Bookshelf - book review

Ebony, Oct, 2002

His name is one of the most recognized in legal annals and has become synonymous with justice for the "man in the street." In A Lawyer's Life (Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press, $25.95), Johnnie Cochran (with David Fisher) explores his 40-plus years in the courtroom. Using his celebrated and also lesser-known court cases as a lense, Cochran examines his own life and parallels his growth as a person and a professional with his legal career.

Along with the O.J. Simpson case that catapulted him onto the international stage, Cochran discusses his 20-year fight to free Geronimo Pratt, who was wrongly convicted of murder; and his defense of, among others, Sean (P. Diddy) Combs, Reginald Denny, the White truck driver attacked during the 1992 L.A. riots, and Abner Louima, the Haitian immigrant tortured by the NYPD.

Cochran, the great-grandson of slaves, now routinely makes a king's ransom in settlements, but he says the justice, not money, motivates him. He represents, he says, the powerless, the injured, the discriminated against, and people without a voice. Although he has heard all the lawyer jokes and laughed at some of them, he is still proud, he says, to call himself a lawyer.