J. Michael Cochrane
Partner
Direct Line: (916) 669-3910
Phone: (916) 443-2011
Fax: (916) 441-7457
Email: Michael Cochrane
John Michael Cochrane has been a member of the bar since 1976. He is a fourth generation California native who served three years as a Naval Officer in the Civil Engineer Corps (Seabees) between graduation from college in 1969, and law school. Since 1975, he has been a registered Civil Engineer in the state of California. He was raised on a family peach and almond ranch near Turlock, California.
After graduation from law school he joined the Sacramento firm of Johnson, Greve, Clifford and Diepenbrock as an associate attorney, using his professional civil engineering degree and legal expertise to defend clients in the Roseville bomb cases and in defense of design professionals in design and product liability cases.
After three years with the Johnson, Greve firm, Michael started his own firm. For the next seventeen years with Montague, Cochrane, and Viglione, he focused on defense of product liability claims for Porsche, Volkswagen, BF Goodrich and Uniroyal. In 1981, as lead trial counsel, he successfully defended Porsche in a wrongful death product liability case. This was the first time Porsche had ever gone to trial in the United States in defense of one of its automobiles.
In 2001, he rejoined the Johnson, Greve firm, (now known as Greve, Clifford, Wengel, and Paras) as a partner; engaged primarily in defense of engineers, design professionals and product liability claims. He has a broad background of trial work involving commercial liability and personal injury. He has tried cases in both state and federal courts. A member of the State Bar Association of California, he is a member of ABOTA, American Board of Trial Attorneys and has volunteered as a Judge Pro Tempore for the Superior Court of Sacramento and Placer Counties since 1988.
Michael has made his home and raised his family in Sacramento since 1972. He has been active in the community, volunteering as a lecturer in professional ethics and legal liability to engineering students at California State University, Sacramento, and other student groups. For twenty-four years, as a member of the California State Society of Professional Engineers, he has organized MATHCOUNTS, a competition among middle schools, designed to spur interest in math and engineering in young students. He has also been an active parent in his children’s schools and activities and served for six years on the board of The Sacramento Children’s Chorus, serving three years as president.
