The Alchemist in the Courtroom
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The Alchemist In the Courtroom BYGBORGE WILLIAMSON lurlingame's untamed Joe Cotchett, a trial law- 'yer extraordinaire on a Bunyanesque roll of outrageous triumphs, looks dead tired and, worse, almost commonplace this particular morning in court Marathon work routines at a sprinting pace exact their price — even on a workaholic with a buffalo's constitution and a beefier, insatiable ego. But, suddenly, the red in those half-closed hazel eyes is fleeing. Color moves into his mustachioed . face, slouched posture becomes colonei-straight: Roll drums and turn on the lights, it's Joe Cotchett's turn. "Because I'm a very, very nice guy, I concede that point, your honor," he thunders in a basso I profundo voice to wary grins from an arena full of dozens of lawyers, most of them opposing him in a mega-million-bucks fraud case. The others all wear dark lawyer suits. Cotchett Is the one in sport coat (light gray tweed) and slacks. i At 48,he is also the only one with wavy gray hair that flows back to an Elvis-like ducktail, and the one strapping enough to block out a power forward in the National Basketball Association. , That worn-out, unexceptional look is gone. Cotchett is, again, in charge of a court. i "Joe's a steam engine in pants. He mows every thing down," says Stale Court of Appeal Justice BYE^KlUSe/THECHflONICie See Page 32, Col 1 Lawyer JoeCotchett tikes the professional fast lane;once he had twosupertrials going simultaneously. < 32 444 SanSTranrisfo 0)ronitlf More Than Just a Classic Hired Gun From PagcM lavishly conspicuous consumption is not his schtick. He drives a white 1984 Cadillac and lives in a "good ' William Newsome. house, a nice house" in San Matco. "He's a mental gymnast. He's He buys investment property, in • blustery. He's a rogue. He's a pussy- cluding the two-story office build . cat All rolled into one. That's Joe ing that houses his law firm across Cotchett." says Bob Balinovich, for from the Airport Marriott. mer state Public Utilities Commis "Every one of the Democratic sion president and, like Cotchett, a candidates for the 1988 presidential •key adviser during Jerry Brown's nomination Is trying to knock down ' gubernatorial reign. Joe's door to get his backing, includ The blustery rogue-cum pussy- ing my candidate," said Duane Gar- cat's latest stunner was the $10 mil relt, who is directing former Arizo lion malicious prosecution judg na Governor Bruce Babbitt's 1988 ment he won in January from a jury presidential bid. ' against Los Angeles Raiders owner Garrett admitted Cotchett's Al Davis. When he filed that suit in known talents as a fund-raiser make ,1934 on behalf of former San Diego him particularly attractive. But Chargers owner Gene Klein, some Garrett added emphatically, "He oddsmakers listed it as a 50-to-l may be a money-raiser and one of longshot. the 10 great trial lawyers in this 'The dcbunkers dldnt under- country, but he's also one with a . stand the chemistry of the Klein very deep social conscience that case. Some lawyers never learn makes him something more than about chemistry," Cotchett said in ^ f. just a classic hired gun. aninterview. "If J had two minutes to make a - - ♦ ' 'The chemistry was simple: llfc-or-dcath decision, I'd like to give irst. the public is fed up with the the first 90 seconds to hearing Joe." ^busc of the legal system. Second 1 '"was Davis himself, who although Ufe at 0 Gallop [ very smart, insists on controlling Politics aside, Cotchett is still everything in his life, including law- i suits,andwhogreallydislikcdOene running, never strolling, in all he BrCMMSItWAm/JHl CHKOHKll docs. "If you can run like a wild I:Klein. horse, and if you are allowed to f - "With that chemistry, 1 knew I Joe Cotchettincourt:Hehas opposins lawyers smilingwarily. really gallop, then you can make a I : could prove to a jury that it was [ Davis, and not his lawyer, Joe Alio- still in one piece." they betterstop playing the game of rights worker killed in 1984 by an statement in life," he said. "Sometimes it's exhilarating; ( to, who insisted on wrongfully sin- Pretty much In one piece, and, thinking of their fees and billings informant who had been placed In f gling out Klein in the 1981 Raiders- while the Domlnelli saga continues first," Cotchett said. the Alabama Ku Klux Klan alleged sometimes it's exhausting," said the ; lawsuit" to unfold (he has collected $62 mil "Represent any client, sure, but ly by the FBI, although in 1983a dynamo's wife, art critic Victoria lion in out-of-court setllements for you can't bend the Constitution, judge ultimately ruled the FBI Powers Cotchett, 34. who married ' 41 A Raider insider scoffed at is- the divorced father of three grown j'suesofchemistry: "Cotchett simply his clients so far in that one). Cotch and you can't help the client cheat wasnt liable for the slaying. ett is now waist deep as the main and steal. That's the trouble with • Nevertheless, Cotchett calls it children five months ago after a ;*wasable to run roughshod over that three-year courtship. The groom : • courtroom." plaintiff lawyer in theTechnical Eq our profession today." t*the most satisfying and significant uities fraud case in San Jose. case I've ever tried." found time for a seven-day Palm _• "Nobody ever accused me of I/OS Angeles attorney Dennis Springs honeymoon five weeks af being timid," Cotchett roared back. The Biggest ScontJal Kinnard, who represented Rogers, • In 1972, Cotchett shook the le ter the marriage. said, "Joe has a knack for fairly gal establishment with a grass-roots '."But dammit,you can't just brow Technical Equities, said to have beat You've got to sense the chem gross exaggerations ... But I think campaign that made him, at 33, the "We all try, but there's no one defrauded Investors of some $150 who can keep up with him...Some istry." Joe is an outstanding lawyer, a very youngest person ever elected to the million, is labeled in business peri effective advocate." State Bar Board of Governors, and people are double-jointed-1 think The chemist also relies on re odicals as the biggest financial scan he was born with two adrenal For anyone, but especially for a the first from outside the "club" of markable stamina. The Klein-Davis dal in the country. J. David Doml glands." trial ran eight weeks in San Diego. fiercely individualistic sort consid the state's largest law firms. nclli, at $1(X)million, ranks second. "What drives Joe so hard?" a The whole time, in a clear abuse of a ered by some to be wildly unpre Ralph Nader wondered what friend, worried about bis health, rented Camaro and the freeway sys Cotchett has mastered an un dictable, Colchcli is widely connect Cotchett, now that he has achieved wondered. "It's got to be something tem. Cotchett also was putting wit usual tack in getting clients their ed politically and occupies numer wealth and steamroller success, will nesses on the stand 20 miles away, in money back from scams. He focuses ous important offices. "do as the big encore. He probably from his childhood and youth. He on the lawyers, accountants, banks had no silver spoon." El Cajon, in a trial that in monetary He is one of two California law has too much trouble talking out of and other terms is bigger than the and so on who surround the contra! both sides of hU mouth for most "I had a fantastic childhood." con figure. Cotchett calls them the yers (selected from KXI.OOO) on the Klein number. Commis-sion on Judicial Perfor elective politics." Nader said. ".. Cotchett boomed. "1 grew up on the "engines, the ones who give the op But he could go for something like streets of Brooklyn and Long Is In the other case he was repre erations an aura of legitimacy." mance, which evaluates and disci senting investors defrauded by J. plines judges. As a colonel in the state attorney general. That's OK land, playing chess and basketball. David Domlnclli. the most signifi Conveniently, they also arc the Army Reserves, he commands the for a blunt person." What a great life." cant con man to afflict Southern ones who retain some coins worth 5th Military Law Center at the Pre Cotchett has done personal at His mother was onetime Broad- California since banker C. Arnholdt pursuing. "A typical con man sidio. one of six-such centers in the torney work for a long list of Demo- w'ay actress and Ziegfeld girl Jean Smith. (Not coincidcntally, Cotchett spends the money, often losing it to UnltedSiates.. .cratic politicians, including Los An Ciarrol A tail, dark-haired French- some other con, as fast as he steals geles Mayor Tom Bradley, U.S. Sen won $30 million in 1979 from the forPuhHi Justice American beauty, she raised three •Smith family for bilked sharehold- It, starting with Charlie Ponzl, who ator Alan Cranston, Jerry Brown children and kept their father's un- still the largest class action died penniless," Cotchett noted, in He is on the board of regents at and the late George Moscone. remuncrative .sales career afloat vard everrender^ bya U.S. jury.) sisting he himself will not die broke. the Hasilng.s College of Law — his Cotchett claimed he has no spe largely from funds procured in Attorney Edwin Heafey, major In the Doniinclli matter, Cotch alma mater.