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Johnnie Cochran (October 2, 1937 – March 29, 2005) was a famed defense attorney best-known for his role in the "Dream Team" of legal defense for O.J. Simpson during his highly publicized murder trial. Cochran also represented Sean "P. Diddy" Combs during his trial on gun and bribery charges, Michael Jackson during his 1993 allegation of child sexual abuse, as well as actor Todd Bridges, football player Jim Brown and rappers Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg during various trials. He also represented Reginald Oliver Denny, the white trucker beaten by a mob during the 1992 Los Angeles riots that followed the verdict of not guilty in the trial of police officers charged with assaulting Rodney King. Cochran was masterful in the courtroom and gained prominence as an early advocate for victims of police abuse before achieving worldwide fame for successfully defending Simpson.

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The eldest child of four, Cochran was born at Charity Hospital in Shreveport, Louisiana. His parents were Johnnie L. Cochran, Sr., the son of Alonzo Cochran, and the late Hattie Bass Cochran (died 1991), the daughter of Eugene Bass. He was raised in Los Angeles, California.

After graduating from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1959 with a bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Cochran earned a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from the Jesuit Loyola Marymount University three years later, in 1962. He passed the California Bar in 1963, took a job in Los Angeles as a deputy city attorney in the criminal division. Two years later, he entered private practice and soon opened his own firm, Cochran, Atkins Evans. By the late 1970s, he had made his name in the black community, and was litigating a number of high-profile police brutality and criminal cases. In 1978, he joined the Los Angeles County district attorney's office, but returned to private practice five years later.

In private practice, Cochran was best known to the general public as a criminal defense lawyer. In most of his cases, however, he represented plaintiffs in tort actions. He founded The Cochran Firm, a law firm that expanded through internal growth and a series of mergers and regional partnerships. The firm, with offices in Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Missouri, Nevada, New York, Tennessee, Texas and Washington, D.C, specialized in personal injury cases.

One notorious case The Cochran Firm tried was in 2004, when the firm's attorneys, representing Francis Ferko and accomplices, were able to bully NASCAR into eliminating its Grand Slam by forcing NASCAR to surrender the Mountain Dew Southern 500 in Darlington, SC, and giving a new date to Texas Motor Speedway.

During closing arguments in the Simpson trial, he uttered the now famous enthymeme, "If the glove don't fit, you must acquit." The phrase derived from a dramatic moment during the trial, in which Simpson tried on a pair of bloodstained "murder gloves" to show jurors they did not fit. [2] Some legal experts called it the turning point in the trial.

Following the Simpson trial, Cochran became a popular figure in parodies, being depicted or caricatured on numerous television shows in the United States. Perhaps most famous is the "Jackie Chiles" character on ; the parody of Cochran became a recurring figure throughout the series, and has since appeared in television commercials outside of the show. (see Chewbacca Defense) also showcased notable parodies, as did many similar programs. He was also mentioned in several films, including , wherein Chris Rock's character, Detective Butters, advised a suspect that he had the right to an attorney, but "If you get Johnnie Cochran, I’ll kill you!" and 1997's , where a character boasted that his lawyer was so good, "he's my own personal Johnnie Cochran."

Cochran himself took these parodies in stride, discussing them in his autobiography, . After the Simpson trial, Cochran himself was a frequent commentator on law-related television shows.

Cochran died at his home in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles on Tuesday, March 29, 2005 at 12:30 PM (PST) of an inoperable brain tumor, according to his brother-in-law Bill Baker. His wife and his two sisters were with him at the time of his death. Cochran was interred in the Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California.

The Cochran Firm (2005). The Cochran Firm, Lawyers and Attorneys, Johnnie Cochran. Retrieved March 29, 2005