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Academics

Meet the Faculty

Photo of Robert F. Cochran Jr.

Robert F. Cochran Jr.
Director, The Herb and Elinor Nootbaar Institute on Law, Religion, and Ethics and Louis D. Brandeis Professor of Law

Office: School of Law (SOL)
E-mail: robert.cochran@pepperdine.edu

  • J.D., University of Virgina, 1976
  • B.A., Carson-Newman College, 1973, magna cum laude

Professor Cochran is the co-author of Lawyers, Clients, and Moral Responsibility West (1994); Cases and Materials on the Legal Profession, 2nd ed. West (1996); The Counselor-at-Law: A Collaborative Approach to Client Interviewing and Counseling, 2nd ed. Matthew Bender (2006); Christian Perspectives on Legal Thought Yale University Press (2001); and Law and Community: The Case of Torts Rowman and Littlefield (2003)

He is the founder of Pepperdine's Institute on Law, Religion, and Ethics.

A 1994-95 and 1997-98 Rick J. Caruso Research Fellow, Professor Cochran teaches Torts, Legal Ethics, Religion and Law, and Family Law. "I teach because I think that truth is important. My hope is that, in interaction with my students, we will discover the truth," he says.

After graduating from law school, Professor Cochran clerked for the Honorable John A. Field, Jr., United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. He wen on to practice with the firm of Boyle and Bain of Charlottesville, Virginia, and has been a visiting professor at T.C. Williams School of Law, University of Richmond, and Wake Forest University School of Law.

Selected Works:
  • Book Review (Barak, THE JUDGE IN A DEMOCRACY), BOOKS & CULTURE (forthcoming).
  • Lawyers, Actors, and Role-Playing, 3 CLS MAGAZINE 16 (Spring 2007).
  • Robert F. Cochran, Jr. & Thomas L. Shaffer, "Technical" Defenses: Ethics, Morals, and the Lawyer as Friend, 14 CLINICAL L. REV. 337 (2007).
  • Catholic and Evangelical Supreme Court Justices: A Theological Analysis, 4 U. ST. THOMAS L.J. 296 (2006).
  • The Catholic Court Appeal: Why So Many Catholic Justices on the Supreme Court? Why Now?, TOUCHSTONE, Jul./Aug. 2006, at 40.
  • Introduction: Can The Ordinary Practice of Law be a Religious Calling?, 32 PEPP. L. REV. 373 (2005).
  • "How do You Plead, Guilty or Not Guilty?": Does the Plea Inquiry Violate the Defendant's Right to Silence?, 26 CARDOZO L. REV. 1409 (2005).
  • Robert F. Cochran, Jr. & Robert M. Ackerman, Law, Community, and Personal Injury, 14 RESPONSIVE COMMUNITY 77 (2004).
  • Raising Required Exam Score Likely Will Result in Lower Ethical Standards, L.A. DAILY J., Dec. 3, 2004, at 6.
  • Symposium: Client Counseling and Moral Responsibility, Three Approaches to Moral Issues in Law Office Counseling, 30 PEPP. L. REV. 591 (2003).
  • Educating Clients on ADR Alternatives: The Rules of Professional Conduct Should Require Lawyers to Inform Clients About ADR, L.A. LAW., Oct. 2002, at 52.
  • Hedonic Product Liability: Will Alcohol Follow the Tobacco Road?, THE BRIEF, Fall 2002, at 12.
  • Professional Rules and ADR: Control of Alternative Dispute Resolution Under the ABA Ethics 2000 Commission Proposal and Other Professional Responsibility Standards, 28 FORDHAM URB. L.J. 895-914 (2001).
  • The View of the Courthouse from the Church, 16 J.L. & RELIGION 751 (2001) (book review).
  • Lawyers and Confession: Moral Discourse, NAT'L L.J., Oct. 15, 2001, at A25.
  • Professionalism in the Postmodern Age: Its Death, Attempts at Resuscitation, and Alternate Sources of Virtue, 14 NOTRE DAME J.L. ETHICS & PUB. POL'Y 305 (2000).
  • Honor as a Deficient Aspiration for "The Honorable Profession": The Lawyer as Nostromo, 69 FORDHAM L. REV. 859 (2000) (symposium issue).
  • From Cigarettes to Alcohol: The Next Step in Hedonic Product Liability?, 27 PEPP. L. REV. 701 (2000).
  • The Rule of Law(yers), 65 MO. L. REV. 571 (2000) (book review).
  • The Criminal Defense Attorney: Roadblock or Bridge to Restorative Justice, 14 J.L. & RELIGION 211 (1999-2000).
  • Robert F. Cochran, Jr. & Thomas L. Shaffer, LAWYERS, CLIENTS, AND MORAL RESPONSIBILITY (West, 2d ed. 2009).
  • FAITH AND LAW: HOW RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS FROM CALVINISM TO ISLAM VIEW AMERICAN LAW (Robert F. Cochran, Jr. ed., NYU Press 2008).
  • The Bible, Positive Law, and the Legal Academy, in THE BIBLE AND THE UNIVERSITY (David Lyle Jeffrey & C. Stephen Evans eds., Paternoster Press 2007).
  • Robert F. Cochran, Jr., John M.A. DiPippa & Martha M. Peters, THE COUNSELOR-AT-LAW: A COLLABORATIVE APPROACH TO CLIENT INTERVIEWING AND COUNSELING (LexisNexis, 2d ed. 2006).
  • LAW AND COMMUNITY: THE CASE OF TORTS (Rowman & Littlefield 2004).
  • Robert F. Cochran, Jr. & Teresa S. Collett, CASES AND MATERIALS ON THE LEGAL PROFESSION (West, 2d ed. 2003).
  • Tort Law and Intermediate Communities: Calvinist and Catholic Insights, in CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVES ON LEGAL THOUGHT (Robert F. Cochran et al. eds., Yale Univ. Press 2001).
  • Christian Traditions, Culture and Law, in CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVES ON LEGAL THOUGHT (Robert F. Cochran et al. eds., Yale Univ. Press 2001).