John Cocke Receives The ‘Beyond The Call Of Duty’ Award From The Mississippi Volunteer Lawyers Project

John Cocke, a founding member of Merkel & Cocke, received the ‘Beyond The Call Of Duty’ award from the Mississippi Volunteer Lawyers Project (MVLP).

The MVLP is a joint venture of The Mississippi Bar Association and Mississippi Legal Services Programs. More than 1,600 Mississippi attorneys volunteer their time and expertise to participate in the Project, and as a result, more than 5,000 low income citizens are assisted by the Project each year.

The ‘Beyond The Call Of Duty‘ award is presented to a member of the Mississippi Association for Justice who has accumulated the most pro bono hours in the previous calendar year. Although John‘s law practice is primarily devoted to handling medical negligence cases, he has donated 43 hours during 2007 to serving the poor through the MVLP, and extensive pro bono legal work for Habitat for Humanity. John has an extensive background with the Project and has been actively taking pro bono cases since 1994.

A spokesperson for the MVLP commented “The Project recognizes that without the priceless contribution of time from attorneys across (Mississippi), we would be immensely limited in the services we make available. Great is the attorney who willingly enters into that level of professionalism with an indigent member of our society who is unable to trade currency for peace of mind”.