Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Page 3
Cochran Firm Appoints Two Equity Partners to Local Office
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Civil litigators Brian T. Dunn and Randy H. McMurray have been selected as equity partners in The Cochran Firm’s Los Angeles office.
The two new equity partners, who now hold the majority ownership interest in the office, worked with founding partner Johnnie L Cochran Jr. for a combined total of 15 years prior to his death in March 2005, the firm explained in a release. They became equity partners on Feb. 1, with the status applied retroactively to Jan.1.
McMurray, who has been the office’s managing partner since Cochran died, said he and Dunn were honored to carry on Cochran’s legacy of representing clients in what he called “the Cochran way.”
Cochran “felt that you can do good and also do well,” McMurray remarked to the MetNews. “What he meant by that was that you can do good for society and your clients, and also you can do well financially—they’re not mutually exclusive.”
McMurray, who along with Dunn is African American, noted the two were proud to be equity partners in a firm with a “unique” heritage of diversity—the Los Angeles office boasts a staff comprised of African American, Hispanic American, Asian American and “Anglo Italian American” professionals, the release noted.
Dunn said in a statement that he was “humbled” to continue Cochran’s vision, which is to have “a diverse law firm which reflects society and is capable of handling cases throughout America.”
Since being admitted to the State Bar in 1995, Dunn has handled numerous high-profile racially charged police misconduct cases, including litigating the fatal 2005 shooting of 13-year-old Devin Brown by a Los Angeles police officer after a high-speed car chase. He also represented the family of 19-year-old Tyisha Miller, shot and killed by Riverside police in 1998.
Dunn also worked with Cochran on the case of Geronimo Pratt, who was convicted and incarcerated in 1968 in the shooting death of a schoolteacher and the wounding of her husband. After 29 years, for 27 of which Cochran represented Pratt, the conviction was overturned on the ground that prosecutors concealed potentially exculpatory evidence.
Recently, Dunn worked with Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley on the Three Strikes Reform Act of 2006.
He holds degrees from the UC Berkeley and University of Michigan Law School.
McMurray, a graduate of Cal Poly Pomona and Southwestern School of Law, represents victims of catastrophic losses in civil cases in areas such as products liability, governmental liability, pharmaceutical liability and police pursuit.
He is the current first vice president of the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles—he has served on the board for over 10 years—and in two years is expected to become the organization’s president.
McMurray became a member of the State Bar in 1986 and has been described as a preeminent plaintiffs’ lawyer in various publications.
Copyright 2007, Metropolitan News Company