Cochran to Deliver Annual King Commemoration at UB

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The influence of the media on race relations will be the topic of the keynote address presented by nationally known defense attorney Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr. at the 24th Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemoration at the University at Buffalo on Feb. 16.

Cochran, whose high-profile clients have included O.J. Simpson, Reginald Denny and Michael Jackson, will speak at 7:30 p.m. in the Mainstage Theatre in the Center for the Arts on the UB North (Amherst) Campus.

A graduate of the University of California at Los Angeles and Loyola Law School, Cochran served as deputy city attorney for the City of Los Angeles, assigned to the Criminal Division, for two years before founding the firm of Cochran, Atkins & Evans in 1965.

Instrumental in founding the Los Angeles County Domestic Violence Council, he became the first African American to be named one of three deputy district attorneys in Los Angeles in 1977.

He returned to private practice in 1981, and was named Lawyer of the Year by The National Law Journal in 1995.

He is a member of the prestigious International Academy of Trial Lawyers and the American College of Trial Lawyers, whose membership consists of the top 1 percent of trial attorneys in the nation.

Cochran's autobiography, "Journey to Justice," was a national bestseller.

The Martin Luther King, Jr. commemoration will be presented by UB and the James Fenton Lecture Foundation. It will be sponsored by the Buffalo Association of Black Journalists.

Free tickets are available at the Center for the Arts box office from noon to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday.

Contributing program sponsors are the UB undergraduate Student Association, The Buffalo News, WIVB-TV, WKBW-TV, WGRZ-TV, WBFO-FM 88.7, WBLK, The Challenger and The Criterion.

For group seating, call 716-645-6147.