Simpson 'Dream Team' finds there's a price for fame.

Believe it or not, 1995 was something of a bad year for attorney Johnnie L. Cochran Jr.

Sure, he did manage to win an acquittal for O.J. Simpson, clearing his client of a double-murder that many Americans still believe the former football star committed.

And he accomplished that feat amid an unprecedented barrage of media attention, leading a team of the nation's top defense attorneys. By the time the verdict came down on Oct. 3, 1995, the flamboyant defender was by far the most famous attorney in the country.

But 1995 nonetheless fell short when it came to a more mundane measure of success - the bottom line.

With the Simpson case monopolizing his firm's attention for more than a year, Cochran said billings in 1995 dropped by more than one-third.

"I couldn't try any of my civil cases for the whole 15 months," Cochran said in an interview from his office in New York, where he now spends most of his time as co-host of his new Court TV talk show, "Cochran & Grace."

"We've been playing catch-up," Cochran said. "It's taken the whole year since the verdict to get back to where we were."

Cochran isn't exactly in a position to complain. Like a number of other Simpson case veterans, he has been able to parlay his post-verdict notoriety into a multi-million dollar book deal. His three-year deal with CourtTV reportedly is worth millions of dollars more. And a recent speaking engagement at Madison Square Garden drew a standing-room-only crowd of admirers.

Moreover, he won the case - something the attorneys defending Simpson in a wrongful death suit brought by the Nichole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman familiers were unable to do. A civil jury last week found Simpson responsible for the deaths and ordered him to pay $8.5 million in compensatory damages.

That Cochran has emerged as one of the country's most recognizable celebrities is beyond doubt. But what defending O.J. Simpson has meant for his legal career - as well as that of his "Dream Team" colleagues - remains something of an open question.

Serving on a high-profile case almost always boosts a lawyer's name-recognition and enhances his or her ability to attract new clients. But according to a number of prominent defense lawyers, an attorney especially a defender - can be in professional trouble the moment he or she crosses the line into full-fledged celebrity-hood.

"You can't walk into a normal criminal case if you're a celebrity," said Harland Braun, a defense attorney in Century City whose clients have included Ted Briseno, one of the LAPD officers accused of beating Rodney King. "You change the very nature of the trial. You become the issue, not your client."

That problem is not likely to affect some of the Dream Team's younger, less visible attorneys. Cochran associates Carl Douglas and Shawn Chapman (neither returned calls for this story) are back in the legal trenches, trying the firm's backlog of mostly civil cases.

"It's probably given them a boost in terms of visibility and a positive spin for their careers," said fellow defense team member Gerald Uelmen, who in the two years since the trial has returned to the quiet life as a law professor at Santa Clara University near San Jose.

But notoriety also can backfire, according to Braun, who carefully scrutinizes all potentially high-profile cases before taking them, in an effort to avoid precisely the sort of mayhem that ensued in the Simpson trial.

In fact, Braun declined several entreaties to join the Simpson team.

"I looked at the case and thought, 'Do I really want to represent a guy who (allegedly) slit his wife's throat? And do I really want that much publicity?'

"Every high publicity case is a high risk," he said. "You've got to know when to turn them down."

Cochran, for his part, insists that business at his Wilshire Boulevard law firm couldn't be better.

As a result of his name recognition, Cochran said he is beginning to attract clients from all over the country, rather than just in the L.A. area, where the bulk of his work has been generated in the past.

His current case-load includes more than 4,000 mostly poor, African-American residents of Buguloosa, La., who are suing a nearby chemical plant for toxic contamination. Closer to home, he is representing former Black Panther Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt, who is appealing a 1972 conviction for the murder of two Los Angeles police officers.

Cochran admitted that it isn't easy juggling his career as an attorney with his new role as a TV personality. Each week, he spends Monday through Thursday taping his show in New York. On Thursday evening or Friday morning, he hops on a flight back to L.A., goes straight to the office and works all day Friday and Saturday. Sunday he spends with his wife and children, and then it's back to New York.

When he's in Manhattan, Cochran remains in contact with his office via phones, fax machines and modems.

"I'm very much aware of what's going on in California," he said. "I don't want to be more famous than my clients. I'm still a lawyer. Everything else is incidental."

That comment drew a sardonic laugh from Dannie Davis, a Beverly Hills criminal defense attorney who successfully defended Raymond Buckey against charges of child abuse in the McMartin pre-school case in the 1980s.

"For fame and money they're giving up any chance they had for a career," Davis said of Cochran and the other Simpson case attorneys who have gone to become authors and talking heads. "You might as well be Geraldo. You give up being a lawyer."

DNA experts Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld have no intention of letting that happen to them. Since the trial, the pair both of whom teach at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York City - have turned down numerous book offers, although Scheck has appeared as a commentator on "NBC Dateline."

Instead, they have thrown the bulk of their energy into promoting their "Innocence Project," a program at Cardozo that uses DNA evidence to try to free defendants who believe they are wrongly accused.

As a result of the Simpson trial, Neufeld said the program has received "zillions" of requests from people claiming to be falsely incarcerated. The program has resulted in the exoneration of about two dozen defendants since its inception three years ago.

"I have no interest in writing a book or having a television show," said Neufeld. "I just wanted to get on with my life and do what was important to me."

Scheck and Neufeld say they also have been spared much of the anger heaped on some of their Dream Team colleagues particularly Cochran and Robert L. Shapiro.

"Even though the verdict was unpopular, we've been treated pretty well," said Scheck. "People thought we acted very professional. People thought we did an honorable job."

Other Simpson trial veterans have taken full advantage of the extra-legal opportunities thrown their way by the case - largely because it was the first opportunity they had to make a drastic career change, as well as a lot more money.

"The Simpson case was an anomaly," said attorney Donald Re, who defended John DeLorean on drug charges and currently represents controversial rap music mogul Suge Knight.

"The case has provided access to a whole other realm of endeavor that would not normally be open to lawyers just because they were on a high profile case."

Shapiro, the man credited with putting together the Dream Team, also took at stab at show business, albeit with considerably less success.

After receiving some $1.5 million for his book, "The Search for Justice," Shapiro tried working as a CBS News commentator on Simpson's civil trial, but left after coming under widespread criticism for conflict of interest.

He continues to work at the law firm of Christensen White MilDer Fink Jacobs Glaser & Shapiro LLP, but has dropped much of his criminal work in favor of more entertainment-oriented, corporate cases.

Shapiro declined to be interviewed for this story.

Many in the legal community said that Shapiro hasn't fared as well as his colleagues since the infamous verdict.

"Being a celebrity, (Shapiro) will probably continue to get the jobs," said Braun. "But people always will associate him with O.J., who they despise. It's a mixed bag. I don't think any lawyer wants that kind of baggage."

"Bob Shapiro probably has had more negative than positive in terms of how it's affected his life," added Uelmen.

Attorney Robert Kardashian, Simpson's close friend and another member of his legal team, also seems to have soured on his experience with the Dream Team.

Kardashian told the authors of "American Tragedy: The Uncensored Story of the Simpson Defense" that Simpson miserably failed the polygraph examination and that he harbored questions about the blood evidence.

Kardashian also spoke to Barbara Walters about his misgivings, evoking criticism that he may have violated the attorney-client privilege.

Kardashian is now trying to stay out of the spotlight. He heads up Movie Tunes - a company he owns that provides music to movie theaters - and wants to go back to a normal life.

"I'm getting on with my life and don't want to give any more interviews," Kardashian told the Business Journal.

The academicians on Simpson's defense team - Uelmen, Scheck, Neufeld and Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz - may have fared the best among the Dream Team members.

Uelmen said that his classes are more popular than ever - perhaps because he often employs actual evidence from the Simpson trial in the classroom, such as using search warrants from the case in his course on criminal procedures.

"It's enriched and enlivened my teaching," Uelmen said. "The celebrity stuff has pretty much worn off.

And according to Neufeld, that's exactly the way it should be - even for the most celebrated members of Simpson's defense team.

"One event does not make a life," Neufeld said. "We all were doing interesting things before (the Simpson trial). Hopefully, we won't just rest on our laurels and go on to do more interesting things in the future."

RELATED ARTICLE: The Dream Team - Where are they now?

F. Lee Barley

Best remembered for his interrogation of detective Mark Fuhrman about racial slurs, Bailey has filed suit against the federal government, seeking return of $16 million worth of stock he obtained from a drug dealer client and was forced to surrender. Bailey, who spent six weeks in a Florida jail for contempt, maintains offices in Boston and West Palm Beach, Fla.

Robert Blasier

The only defense attorney to return for the civil trial, the Sacramento-based physical evidence expert suffers from severe genetic back problems and left the case in December to undergo a radical spinal fusion. He returned for closing arguments, which he delivered from a wheelchair.

Johnnie L. Cochran Jr,

The lead defense attorney, Cochran recently launched "Cochran & Grace," an interview and analysis show on Court TV with former Atlanta prosecutor Nancy Grace. The contract for his book, "Journey to Justice," reportedly was worth more than $4.2 million.

Alan Dershowitz

A professor of criminal law at Harvard Law School, Dershowitz is a twice-weekly guest on Geraldo Rivera's CNBC show. He recently completed a book, "The Vanishing American Jew," due out next month.

Carl Douglas Shawn Chapman

Associates in Johnnie Cochran's law firm, Douglas and Chapman continue to work on civil cases out of the firm's L.A. office.

Robert Kardashian

The one-time close friend and attorney of Simpson had a much-publicized break with the former football star last year, expressing doubts about Simpson's innocence. Kardashian now heads Movie Tunes, which provides music to theaters, and says he wants to stay out of the spotlight.

Peter Newfeld Barry Scheck

The defense team's DNA experts, Neufeld and Scheck teach at Benjamin N. Cardozo Law School in New York City, where they run a project that uses DNA evidence to try and free defendants who claim to be wrongly accused. Both are commissioners on the New York Forensic Science Review Board.

Robert L. Shapiro

The man who assembled the "Dream Team" for the Simpson defense, Shapiro reportedly received $1.5 million for his book, "The Search for Justice." He continues to work at the law firm of Christensen White Miller Fink Jacobs Glaser & Shapiro LLP, although he has dropped much of his criminal caseload in favor of more entertainment-related work.

Gerald Uelmen

A respected legal scholar who wrote most of the defense team's legal briefs, Uelmen has returned to his job as a law professor at Santa Clara University near San Jose.