Cochran Name On the Wane?

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Cochran Name On the Wane?
Legal Legacy: Brian Dunn in the late Johnnie Cochran’s former office at Cochran Firm in Los Angeles.

For years, Randy McMurray fought an intense and sometimes ugly battle for the right to name his law firm after the late Johnnie Cochran. His battle finally appears to be won after a federal judge last month gave him the go-ahead.

But now McMurray isn’t so sure he even wants the Cochran moniker, which became famous during the O.J. Simpson murder trial in the 1990s.

The name is no longer so valuable for him, McMurray explained. “I haven’t made any decisions yet, but it’s nice to have a choice.”

McMurray once was managing partner of the Cochran Firm, founded by Johnnie Cochran, but he split from it in 2012 to form the Cochran Law Group after a feud with Brian Dunn, who now serves as managing partner of the original firm’s L.A. office on Wilshire Boulevard just east of the Miracle Mile.

McMurray was only able to use Cochran’s name for a few months before a federal judge ruled it had infringed on a trademark held by the Cochran Firm. That’s when his firm became McMurray Henriks. But the court reversed its ruling last month, clearing the way for a Cochran Law Group comeback.

“Finally, I feel like I’ve gotten a little bit of justice,” McMurray said.

The name, however, isn’t as appealing as it was two years ago. Back then, McMurray had just left the Cochran Firm after spending 13 years connected to the name. Most of his clients, he said, knew him as the lawyer from Cochran’s firm, which is why he initially sought to operate under a similar brand. He had hoped the name would minimize the devastating impact that comes with building a firm from the ground up.

“We started off as the Cochran Law Group and that helped some,” he said. “It was to say, ‘I’m still here.’”

But now, since he has operated under McMurray Henriks for so long, he said he doesn’t need to rely on the Cochran name anymore.

“We have established both who I am from my history and who we are as a law firm,” said McMurray, who added that he’s still deciding.

In the meantime, McMurray could force the Cochran Firm to give up its exclusive rights to the name. He has urged the court to revoke the firm’s trademark rights, claiming the firm deceives the public by marketing itself as a national law firm.

Indeed, the court appears to agree with McMurray, finding he could succeed in proving the Cochran Firm has deceived the public. A trial is scheduled in federal court early next year to determine whether the Cochran Firm can prevent others from using the name.

Bobby Ghajar, head of the trademark practice at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman in downtown Los Angeles, said that last month’s ruling could further dilute the value of the Cochran brand.

“They don’t lose their ability to use the name, but if there is an adverse final ruling, it’s going to affect their ability to stop the next guy from using Cochran as a law firm name,” said Ghajar, who reviewed the case for the Business Journal but is not involved in the dispute. “So, in effect, it’s going to really, really weaken their rights.”

Bad breakup

Cochran opened the Law Offices of Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. in 1981, building a reputation as a flamboyant and passionate civil rights attorney who often took on police misconduct cases that most lawyers avoided.

He rose to national fame after his successful defense of Simpson on murder charges in 1995. To this day, millions of Americans can recall where they were when the L.A. jury delivered its not-guilty verdict. It was a controversial outcome that came down after Simpson struggled to pull a pair of potentially incriminating leather gloves over his hands. Cochran followed up with his now-famous phrase: “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.”

In the wake of that attention, Cochran struck a deal with a group of lawyers in Dothan, Ala., to form a national firm branded with his name, and his L.A. office became the local branch of the Cochran Firm.

Today, Cochran’s personal office on the top floor of a 10-story tower at Wilshire Boulevard and Highland Avenue has remained virtually untouched since his death from brain cancer. Newspaper clippings from the Simpson trial and several awards still hang on the walls, and rows of now-faded photos, including one of him and actor Robert De Niro, line a shelf behind his desk. A daily calendar on his desk still reads March 29, 2005, the day he died.

McMurray bought the L.A. office from the Cochran Firm in 2007 and formed the Cochran Firm Los Angeles, with Dunn and Joseph Barrett as partners. As part of the deal, they paid the Alabama office each month for the use of the name.

But the relationship among the three soured over disagreements in how to move the firm forward, and Dunn and Barrett voted in 2012 to remove McMurray as managing partner.

An ugly legal battle ensued, and a receiver was appointed by the court to take over the books and divide the firm’s assets. McMurray was left with the Cochran Firm Los Angeles phone number; Dunn and Barrett kept the office and Cochran name.

McMurray, however, didn’t stray far. He launched his new firm on the Miracle Mile, less than a mile west of the Cochran Firm.

Lasting legacy

Meanwhile, the home office of the Cochran Firm is under scrutiny in federal court, stemming from McMurray’s claims that its existing partners deceive the public by marketing itself as a national firm. He says the firm operates more like a franchise than a traditional law firm.

“They just had contracted people who would show up in court with Cochran cards,” he said. “Some of them don’t even know who Johnnie Cochran was. … You can’t do that as a law firm. It’s deceiving the public.”

The court, in a preliminary ruling, agreed.

McMurray “has met his burden that (the Cochran Firm) has unclean hands in the use of its trademark by advertising itself as a national law firm when there is no evidence that the individual offices are connected other than through agreements,” U.S. District Judge Philip S. Gutierrez said in his preliminary ruling last month.

But Dunn insists no one was misled.

“We’re not a Denny’s and we’re not selling fast food,” Dunn said. “We’re selling a product in legal services. In my 20 years here, I’ve never had a client call and say, ‘What is your national structure?’ So the current attack on our structure does not impact what’s important to me, which is taking care of clients.”

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