Lawyer to defend Cochran in Supreme Court

By Michael Picarella pic@theacorn.com

Jonathan Cole

A football player’s ultimate playground is the Super Bowl, for a filmmaker it’s the Academy Awards. And, to keep the analogies rolling, any lawyer worth his salt probably would want to bring a case before the United States Supreme Court.

A Calabasas attorney will get his chance this month.

Jonathan Cole, 54, will defend famous lawyer Johnnie Cochran Jr. in front of the High Court in Washington D.C. on March 22. The case involves First Amendment issues.

In 1983, Los Angeles businessman Ulysses Tory hired Cochran, the lawyer who became famous a decade later in the O.J. Simpson case, to represent him in a suit against the Los Angeles Police Department. Cochran and Tory didn’t win the settlement and Tory subsequently claimed that Cochran conspired with the city to cover up illicit police department activities.

To protest, Tory and his wife picketed Cochran’s office. Cochran answered by suing Tory for defamation and invasion of privacy. The judge in the case said Tory wasn’t allowed within 300 yards of Cochran or any of his businesses.

Cole was the lawyer that helped Cochran win the initial case against Tory. He has defended Cochran on various other cases in the past.

"(The Tory) case, in the trial court, was kind of simple," Cole said. "I tried it, I won it, and then the next thing we know there was this contention that the injunction violated the First Amendment of the Constitution. The First Amendment rights lawyers—very big firms—rallied to the cause, they wrote some very significant briefs to the court of appeal and at that point it started to get complex. The issues are very complicated and then it went U.S. Supreme Court."

There’s no money at stake in the case, according to Cole, just whether or not Tory has the right to speak about Cochran in public.

Cole claims that Tory attempted extortion. He said his work on this case has been very challenging and said he feels it will be an uphill battle. Cole said he has the tougher argument.

If Cole is victorious, he expects to continue doing business usual, despite the high profile nature of the case.

"There’s certain publicity attended to being in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, but my practice is not what we would call an appellant specialist practice," Cole said. "If it was, than maybe the case could be good for business. But I’m just a trial lawyer. It’s a significant event in my career, but it’s not going to make or break me as a lawyer."

Cole and his opponents each will have half-a- hour to argue their cases. Cole expects a decision before June.

"I’m a trial lawyer and I specialize in representing lawyers and while I’ve had my name on numerous appellant decisions in the state of California that have made law over the years and while I’ve argued before the court of appeal and even once before the California Supreme Court, I’ve never argued before the United States Supreme Court," Cole said.

"I think the percentage of lawyers who will ever get to do that is extremely small. That makes this case, in its own way, one of the most significant things that will happen in my legal career." Cole said he enjoys his work because it’s challenging and intriguing to him. In addition to to his daily work, the veteran lawyer says he now enjoys teaching his craft to others.

Cole started out 30 years ago after receiving his education from the University of Colorado and Lewis and Clark Law School in Portland, Ore. Cole co-founded the law firm Nemeck and Cole in Sherman Oaks in 1984 and has been there since.