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James E. King Jr.
Some view the law as a set of rules, but Attorney James King views it as a shield. For more than fourteen years he has walked into courtrooms not for the privileged, but for the forgotten. His career is defined by the lives that he has stabilized and the systemic barriers he has dismantled. He has spent his life in the trenches of the legal system, fighting with a tenacity that most lawyers reserve for their own families. He believes that justice is not a luxury for the few, but a right for all, and he has spent his professional life making that belief a reality.
King graduated from Central Michigan University located in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan. While there, he spearheaded the fight for the university to acknowledge Martin Luther King Day by cancelling classes in honor of the day. After a long-fought battle, the university agreed to dismiss school for the first time ever and has done so since the resolution was passed in 2004.
After graduation, King briefly played professional football. After being falsely accused and convicted of a crime, his passion transferred from athletics to the law. While in law school, he was elected as President of the student body. His academic efforts enabled him to obtain the Dean’s Fellow Scholarship and to become a member of his school's Law Review. Because of his fight for community and justice, King was awarded the Mason Civil Rights Scholarship Award for Extensive Community Service, the Judge Pryor Award for his excellence in criminal justice, the David Niblak Scholarship Award for his commitment to criminal defense and the Dean’s Cup for outstanding service.
While in law school, King also served as a volunteer for the Mississippi Center for Justice to help individuals suffering from Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill. He also volunteered for the D.C. Prisoners Project (Washington Lawyers Association). After graduating from Law School, King returned to his alma mater as an Adjunct Professor teaching a Trial Advocacy course and coaching Mock Trial teams.
Before returning home to Detroit, Attorney King was a Supervising Trial Attorney at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia (PDS) where he amassed dozens of acquittals for his clients. He holds an undefeated trial record during his tenure at PDS (one conviction overturned on appeal). Outside of the courtroom, he displayed an equally impressive success rate in revocation hearings before the U.S. Parole Commission and sealed proceedings for juveniles charged with wide-ranging criminal offenses.
After leaving PDS, King became the Managing Partner at the Cochran Firm (Detroit). While at the Cochran Firm James represented clients in high profile civil and criminal cases. James was just one trial away from an undefeated record in the cases that went to verdict.
Additionally, King was an integral member of a legal team that achieved a sentence reduction for a man who had served thirty-seven years of a life sentence. He also led the litigation for a legal team that overturned a conviction and sentence of a man sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
After the Cochran Firm King returned to his passion of community and justice. He became a Supervising Attorney at the Neighborhood Defender Service (Detroit). There he not only supervised attorneys, but he also went on to have another undefeated trial record in the cases that went to verdict.
Having fully investigated hundreds of criminal cases as part of his caseload, Attorney King developed a profound understanding of the complexities of the criminal justice system and the abuse doled out by police misconduct and brutality.
As a result, he has authored, argued, and obtained case dismissals in criminal cases prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office and the Office of the Attorney General. Galvanized by the horrors experienced by underrepresented communities, he served as one of the founding members for the Black Public Defender Association.
He has trained various private practitioners, public defender agencies, Criminal Justice Act panels, and students. He continues to advocate justice for individuals in need of criminal defense or civil representation in the areas of police misconduct, police brutality, civil rights, and personal injury.