President of The Cochran Firm Named to Tuskegee University Board of Trustees
The Cochran Firm, with office locations nationwide
Jock Smith, president and co-founder of The Cochran Firm national law firm, has been named as one of the newest members to the Board of Trustees of Tuskegee University, an independent and state-related university located in Tuskegee, Alabama.
A graduate of Tuskegee University, Mr. Smith earned his law degree from the University of Notre Dame School of Law. In addition to his position as president and co-founder of the national firm, Mr. Smith also is the managing attorney for The Cochran Firm’s Tuskegee office which is housed in an 1890’s antebellum home in the heart of the town.
Greatly affected by this recent honor, Mr. Smith said, "As an alumnus of Tuskegee University, this is one of the greatest awards I have ever received. I am so proud to serve the university which played an integral part of my education and my life as I pursued my legal career."
Throughout his distinguished professional career, Mr. Smith has worked on many remarkable cases and has obtained record setting verdicts and settlements on behalf of his clients, including an $80 million verdict against Orkin Pest Control, a $700 million settlement in the nation’s largest environmental case against Monsanto, Pharmacia and Solutia Incorporated, and a record $1.6 billion verdict against Southwestern Life Insurance.
In 2004, Mr. Smith’s work on the Southwestern Life Insurance case was recognized by The National Law Journal and U.S. Lawyers Weekly as being the largest verdict in the nation and the largest verdict in history obtained by an African American lawyer serving as lead counsel for the plaintiff. In 2007 and 2009, Mr. Smith represented the legacy estates of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr., repectively.
Having received an AV rating by Martindale-Hubble Law Directory, the highest achievable rating given to an attorney, Mr. Smith also has been chosen as one of the top 500 Lawyers in the country by Lawdragon Magazine. In 2009, he was selected as a member of Who’s Who in Black Lawyers in New York, and in February, 2010, he was selected as a lifetime member of Superior Lawyers of America.
Mr. Smith first met the nationally acclaimed lawyer, Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr. in 1996. Within a year and a half of this first meeting, Mr. Smith and Mr. Cochran formed Cochran Sports Management, a sports firm which represented professional athletes in contract negotiations. Mr. Smith later facilitated meetings between Mr. Cochran and other attorneys who would work to build a law firm that could represent the diversity of America and litigate cases anywhere in the country.
On June 10, 1998, the national law firm of Cochran, Cherry, Givens and Smith was founded in Los Angeles, California. This was the beginning of The Cochran Firm’s development into one of the country’s most recognized civil plaintiff and criminal defense law firms.
In 2002, New South Books published Mr. Smith’s autobiography, Climbing Jacob’s ladder – A Trial Lawyer’s Journey on Behalf of the Least of These. He is also president and founder of Scoring For Life, a motivational company which utilizes Mr. Smith’s extensive sports memorabilia collection in it presentation to energize, inspire and exhort people of all ages to make the "game of life" really count.
At the National Bar Association meeting in 2005, Mr. Smith was awarded the inaugural Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr. Journey to Justice Award. This award is given to honor the legal skills and characteristics protecting the rights of clients like and unto Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr. Mr. Cochran’s widow, Dr. Dale Cochran, presented the award to Mr. Smith on behalf of the Executive Committee of The Cochran Firm and the National Bar Association in memory of her husband.
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