“I love helping people”. Those words from our Senior Partner, John D Coggin, define his entire life. Whether it was in the US Army, in the courtroom, or building churches with Carpenters for Christ; John loves helping and serving others. This defines who he is as a man.
John’s path to practicing law began in Centre, Alabama while working at The Western Auto. His eyes were opened to the possibility of helping people by pursuing a law degree. So, he moved his family to Birmingham in 1972 and attended Cumberland Law School.
Upon graduating in 1975 he began practicing law in Centre, Alabama where he served as the Municipal Judge for Cedar Bluff and Centre in addition to his private practice.
In December of 1982 he was appointed District Court Judge where he remained until 1997.
While on the bench, Mr. Coggin heard thousands of cases related to family, criminal, and juvenile issues. John also served as the President of the Juvenile Family Court Association.
A graduate of Jacksonville State University and Cumberland Law School in Birmingham, John resides in Centre. John loves his family and adores his 3 granddaughters.
Gina Coggin was looking for a “get out of jail free” card when she decided to become a lawyer.
Coggin was home from college and “in trouble with my parents”. So she decided to go downstairs to her father John Coggin’s study, read his law books and just try to get back in good graces.
“I stayed down there forever,” she said. “I was just fascinated.”
The pre-med major went back to the University of Alabama, took a few law-related classes and just got the bug.
She then began going with her father, who was a district judge at the time, to hear cases. Her fate was sealed by two of her father’s actions: his involvement in a domestic case and his work in juvenile court.
“I went with him to hear a domestic case in Scottsboro and it was a particularly difficult case, it involved allegations of Satan worship..it was one of those bizarre cases that come along now and then,” she said. “During that case I realized how important law was relating to the lives of people.”
Then-Judge Coggin’s office also was filled with mementos from kids who had gotten in trouble. Mementos that thanked him for saving their life, talking the time to turn their life around.
“I knew that I wanted to do something that would make that kind of difference, make that kind of difference for the good,” she said.
After graduating from Alabama, Coggin headed to Cumberland Law School, her father’s alma mater. She was very active in Moot Court, was on the National Trial Team and helped bring the Negotiation Team to Cumberland. Many of her fellow students were in law school to launch a lucrative career. Coggin said she was there so she could make a positive difference in people’s lives.
After graduation, Gina took somewhat of an unexpected path and went to work as an Etowah County assistant district attorney. She was in charge of a pilot program that centered on prosecuting child sex crimes. Again, a chance to help others.
After a few years in the District Attorney’s office, Coggin was recruited into a plaintiff's firm primarily to represent victims of employment discrimination.
“I asked my father what he thought I should do, I had never represented a plaintiff,” she said. “He told me the people I would be representing would be just as much victims as the victims I had represented in criminal cases.
“And they are,” she added. “They are victims of corporate greed, victims of horrible behavior by CEOs, victims of unsafe working conditions; they are all victims, just victims of a different kind.”
Coggin’s passion for helping people won her the ALAJ Al Sansone award a few years ago, has made her a must call person when ALAJ needs help on legislative issues and has taken her to her current job as chair person of the association’s worker’s comp division.
Her zeal does not go unnoticed in the courtroom, the Statehouse, her church or as a mother.
“I love being able to go to Montgomery and encourage our politicians to do the right thing,” she said. “I think as lawyers we have a moral obligation to try and balance the scales...as we all say...without us, who?”
“Being a mother has made me a better person, a better wife, and a better lawyer,” she said. “I now have a greater understanding of and sympathy for what families go through.
“I understand the victim of an automobile wreck who can’t work and doesn’t know how they are going to buy diapers; a father who has been injured on the job and wonders how in the world he is going to support his family on a worker’s compensation check.”
“People are very surprised when they first find out I am a lawyer,” she said. “As a Christian I believe your ministry is your job and I know that I am serving the greater good and the Lord in my practice.”