by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
You’d think after a half-century of practicing law and being a partner in his own firm that attorney Jim Cobb’s office would be filled to capacity with relics, plaques, mementos and other collectibles.
Actually, the office is modest with a good view of Downtown, looking east down Riverside Avenue.
Instead, it seems, Cobb’s memory is his collection. Sure, there are plenty of family photos and awards and degrees, but the true history of Cobb’s legal career as a trial lawyer isn’t on the walls or shelves. It lies in conversation with Cobb, who’s a partner in Peek, Cobb, Edwards & Ragatz.
Cobb’s an attorney from an era when associates “carried a briefcase for 10 years” while learning from local legal legends like Chester Bedell. An era when attorneys tried three to four cases a week, not three to four a year. An era long before computers. Heck, an era when prospective attorneys could take the Bar exam without going to law school.
Cobb was exposed to all of that and then some. Long before law school was on his agenda, Cobb went on a family trip and saw most of North America.
“My dad bought a Nehi (soft drink) bottling plant here in Jacksonville and sold it a couple of years later,” said Cobb, who’s originally from Quitman, Ga., a small town about 18 miles west of Valdosta. “He bought a trailer and we drove 25,000 miles all over the United States, Canada and Mexico. I saw everything there is to see. I was 9 years old and I still remember that trip fondly. It broadened my perspective.”
The trip took five months and Cobb said gas was 19 cents a gallon at the time.
Cobb’s other-than-law resume includes working at his father’s Canada Dry bottling plant (the one he bought after the trip) carrying empty cases and loading trucks. There was a stint in the Air Force during the Korean War. Cobb was stationed at an American base in Misawa, Japan. After Korea, Cobb stayed in the Air Force and worked in the military’s guided missile school in El Paso, Texas.
Despite the diverse employment, Cobb was intent on going to law school.
“I always wanted to be a lawyer,” he said, adding his high school civics classes laid the foundation for his interest in the profession.
Cobb graduated from law school in 1958 and went to work at the Bedell Firm.
“When I started out, it was not too hectic; we worked at a leisurely pace,” said Cobb. “Chester Bedell believed that young lawyers should carry a briefcase for 10 years before they went to court.”
That didn’t last long. Cobb was lured into insurance law and for four years tried two to three cases a week. Everything changed, he said, in 1975.
“The malpractice crisis hit. That changed law dramatically,” he said.
For the next several years, Cobb traveled the country gathering the testimony of expert witnesses for dozens of malpractice cases.
“I learned a lot about medicine along the way,” he said.
In 1991, he started his firm with Gene Peek. Today, the firm has eight lawyers and accompanying staff, and Cobb has no desire to grow the firm.
“That’s not the way I want to practice law,” he said. “Today, it’s a business. The way the legal profession is now, it’s just a business.
“When I started the older lawyers mentored the young lawyers along. Today, it’s about billable hours.”
Cobb says he’s slowing down, but still makes it into the office every day. He hasn’t given a lot thought to retirement, but Cobb did say much of his days are now spent working in the community and with organizations such as Jacksonville Area Legal Aid.