Partners at one of Southern California's most successful plaintiff shops have embarked on a novel business plan: They're opening Bay Area offices for a firm whose reputation is staked on one man. And they don't seem to mind that he died last month.
"Johnnie Cochran is established in the public mind. He became almost an icon or a cultural standard of exquisite legal practice, criminal and civil," said Bruce Fishelman, of counsel at Santa Monica's Greene Broillet & Wheeler and the new western manager for the 130-lawyer Cochran Firm, whose name partner died March 29.
"Greene Broillet has got a great reputation, but it's not known the way Cochran is known," Fishelman said, explaining why Greene Broillet's nine partners -- plus three who left that firm Monday -- have become partners in the Cochran Firm.
But other than the guarantee that Cochran himself won't be working on your case, it's not clear who will be working directly with Bay Area clients: The new San Francisco partners are based in Santa Monica, and no lawyers have yet been hired for the local offices.
"I've never heard of anything like this," said David Wilkins, a professor at Harvard Law School and expert on law firm structure.
Me neither. I've been up against Greene Broillet before. They are formiddable when they are on their game. But they also sometimes fuck up massively when they are not.
Good luck. (Ha!)