I read your report of Johnnie Cochran’s speech with some amazement (‘Cochran discusses cases, experiences,’ Nov. 12, pg. 1). He claims to want to pattern himself after Thurgood Marshall. Mr. Marshall is also one of my heroes and I am quite sure that he would never have defended O.J. Simpson.

Mr. Marshall spent his time as a lawyer at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People on, I would imagine, a very small salary, fighting the good fight. Mr. Cochran clearly does some pro bono work, which all lawyers should and which is admirable, but to ask that he be known for that rather than the high-profile, televised, highly-paid Simpson case is exhibiting a naiveté which I doubt Mr. Cochran possesses. Oddly, I seem to have forgotten his strenuous opposition to televising the trial and his adamant refusal to give comments and interviews to the media, in order to avoid the inevitable notoriety which was so unfairly thrust upon him.