James Jerome Carter

James Jerome Carter is a nationally accomplished attorney. With over 26 years of legal practice, he is the Managing Partner of The Cochran Firm Trials and Mass Torts. Mr. Carter has tried to verdict, settled, and been associated with many high-value cases-both personal and business. In 2025, James became the President-Elect of the National Bar Association and served as the immediate past Vice President of Finance. His practice is distinguished by experience in catastrophic injury, high stakes complex litigation, regulatory matters, and governmental relations. James’s skillfully aggressive approach to the civil jury trial world gained him an elite membership in the Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum. Operating regularly as lead trial counsel when there are millions of dollars on the line, law firms throughout the United States hire James to try cases with their teams. 

Mr. Carter is admitted to practice in all Louisiana state courts, all Michigan state courts, all Louisiana United States District Courts, the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals as well as the United States Supreme Court. He is a member of the Louisiana Bar Association, Michigan State Bar Association, The National Trial Lawyers Top 100, The National Black Lawyers Top 100 and Litigation Counsel of America, limited to less than one-half of one percent of North American lawyers, judges and scholars.

Advancing quality education is an important part of James ’s life. He is a Civil Trial Litigation Adjunct Professor at Howard University School of Law and sits on its Board of Visitors. In fact, the late great Johnnie Cochran’s inspirational book, A Lawyer’s Life, is required reading for the Developing a High-End Civil Trial Practice course Mr. Carter teaches. 

After the devastation of Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005, he chose to take part in the rebuilding of his beloved community and city. From 2006 to 2010, he served on the first New Orleans City Council seated after the storm and played a pivotal role in the City’s recovery. James also served as Chairman of the influential University of Louisiana System Board of Supervisors, and he is presently a Commissioner and past Vice Chairman of the globally significant Port of New Orleans. 

James holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Juris Doctorate degree from Howard University. His executive education includes a certification in Mass Tort Multi-District Litigation from Duke University School of Law’s Bolch Judicial Institute and a certificate in Governing for Nonprofit Excellence from Harvard Business School.