News Article
Womble Carlyle's Jim Cooney Helps Successfully Defend Student-Athlete in Duke Lacrosse Case
April 17, 2007
Womble Carlyle attorney Jim Cooney was part of the defense team that exonerated one of the three players in the now-infamous Duke University Lacrosse case.
Cooney's client, Reade Seligmann, and teammates David Evans and Collin Finnerty were found innocent of any wrongdoing last Wednesday by North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper. The three young men had faced charges of sexual assault and kidnapping stemming from an off-campus party, despite their insistence that they were innocent and mounting evidence to support their claim.
After a three-month review of the case, Cooper not only dropped the charges but also determined that the accused college students were innocent of the accusations.
"Based on the significant inconsistencies between the evidence and the various accounts given by the accusing witness, we believe these three individuals are innocent of these charges," Cooper said.
The Duke Lacrosse case has attracted international attention and, as a result, Cooney has been quoted in numerous media outlets this past week, including CNN, CBS News, the Associated Press, USA Today, ABC News and Time.
Here are links to some of those news stories:
Associated Press: Cleared Duke players could sue
ABC News: Duke prosecutor apologizes
Time: Duke player charges may be dropped
WRAL: Ex-Duke Lacrosse players, attorneys news conference (video)
Cooney also received national attention in 2004, when he overturned the conviction of Death Row inmate Alan Gell, who had been wrongly accused and convicted of murder.
For his work on the Gell case, the North Carolina Bar Association awarded Cooney the 2004 William L. Thorp Pro Bono Award – the Bar Association’s highest honor for an individual who has provided exemplary legal services to a person of limited means. Jim appeared on “Larry King Live” to discuss the Gell case in December, 2005.
A full-service business law firm, Womble Carlyle ranks among AmLaw's 100 leading firms in the country and is a top law firm for companies doing business in the Southeast and mid-Atlantic states. The firm is a recipient of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund Corporate Leadership Award, making Womble Carlyle the first law firm ever to receive the highest honor given to a business organization in recognition of its support of the Fund and its 45 member educational institutions.
Founded in 1876, Womble Carlyle operates in six states and the District of Columbia with nearly 550 attorneys in eleven offices located in Atlanta, GA; Greenville, SC; Charlotte, Greensboro, Raleigh, Research Triangle Park, and Winston-Salem, NC; Washington, DC; Tysons Corner, VA; Wilmington, DE; and Baltimore, MD. Womble Carlyle is located in the Southeast and mid-Atlantic regions, and serves clients nationally and globally.