I suppose you could call me a contrarian. When confronted with the need for a lawyer, all the old lawyer jokes and stereotypes sprang to the fore. While this may have inspired fear and loathing in some, and not just those in Las Vegas, it merely stiffened my resolve to not fall prey to such cognitive pitfalls as the availability heuristic or confirmation bias. In brief, Cochran was given a free pass, so to speak, and would have to actively earn any rancor or disrespect on my part. No one has the innate scorn for conventional wisdom that I did. And no one felt more foolish when Cochran proceeded to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory by living up to, if not embellishing, every bad lawyer stereotype there was - and then some. I'll spare you the gory details, and close with the following thought. Life is never fair, and it is perhaps a good thing for Cochran that it is not. read more