Cochran is most famous for, with the help of a passive Judge Ito, gulling a jury into acquitting double-murderer O.J. Simpson, but he was in a number of other notable cases: for example, as a young deputy city attorney, he unsuccessfully prosecuted Lenny Bruce for obscenity in 1964. Cochran was already a prominent Los Angeles attorney when he joined the nightmarish “Dream Team,” and then parlayed his national fame into a successful personal injury business while continuing to play the celebrity trial game. To his partial credit, whenever asked if he thought Simpson was innocent, he carefully couched his reply to dodge the question by noting that Simpson always maintained his innocence. (Adam Liptak, NY Times, Mar. 30).

A confession: though Cochran wouldn’t have known me from Adam, someone digging through the LA Superior Court files might find a case where he and I were both on the caption page as co-counsel. I disagree with many of Cochran’s outside causes, and disagree with many of the results he achieved, but his skills were unquestionable–he was by far the most charismatic man I’d ever met, even when he was wearing a suit in a shade of yellow no other person I know could’ve gotten away with.

I’m not inclined to criticize him today. Cochran took advantage of flaws in the system on behalf of his or her clients, and did that about as well as any other trial lawyer of his era. Blame–and fix–the system, not the man for whom the system provides the economic incentive to act against society’s best interests.

Walter’s Overlawyered entries on Cochran: Dec. 6; Apr. 29; Apr. 15; Aug. 29, 2003 (and links therein); pre-2003. (& letter to the editor, Jun. 8).