A father, a son, and one kind of case

Jeffrey A. Cooke opened the firm in 1974. J. Aaron Cooke joined him in 1997. Neither has practised anything but personal injury law since.

Jeffrey A. Cooke

Member - founded the firm in 1974

Jeffrey A. Cooke opened Cooke Law Firm in Lafayette in 1974 and has practised personal injury law there ever since. He took his B.A. at Purdue in 1967 and his J.D. at the University of Connecticut School of Law in 1970, and has been admitted to the Indiana bar since 1970. He served as City Attorney for West Lafayette from 1976 to 1980 and as Indiana State Coordinator for the National Board of Trial Advocacy. The Indiana Trial Lawyers Association named him its Trial Lawyer of the Year in 1998 and gave him its Lifetime Achievement Award in April 2013. He is AV Preeminent peer-review rated by Martindale-Hubbell and is listed annually in Super Lawyers.

Full record for Jeffrey A. Cooke

J. Aaron Cooke

Member - joined the firm in 1997

J. Aaron Cooke joined his father's firm in 1997, the year he was admitted to the Indiana bar, and has practised personal injury law in Lafayette since. He took his B.A. at Indiana University in 1993 with a Certificate of Studies in Public and Environmental Affairs, and his J.D. at Valparaiso University School of Law in 1996. He is admitted to the U.S. District Courts for both the Northern and Southern Districts of Indiana, and is a member of the Brain Injury Association of Indiana - which is why catastrophic head and spinal cord work has its own footing at this firm. He is listed annually in Super Lawyers.

Full record for J. Aaron Cooke

What the two of them are members of

Every entry below is checkable against the awarding body or a bar directory rather than against this website. That is the point of listing them this way. The work those credentials get used on is set out in the practice areas, and the firm’s own history is on the about page.

Indiana Trial Lawyers Association: Lifetime Achievement Award 2013; Trial Lawyer of the Year 1998
National Board of Trial Advocacy: Indiana State Coordinator
Brain Injury Association of Indiana: Member - J. Aaron Cooke
Martindale-Hubbell: AV Preeminent peer-review rated
Super Lawyers: Both attorneys listed annually
Phi Gamma Delta: Jeffrey A. Cooke

The full list, including the awards and the years they were given, is on the recognition page. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

What they will and will not tell you

One practice area, on purpose

The firm has done personal injury work and nothing else since 1974. No closings, no wills, no divorces competing for the same afternoon. It is the reason a complicated brain injury file does not frighten anybody here.

You are told what it is

Including when the answer is that you do not need a lawyer. The firm's published standard is that you should only hire it if it can put you in a better position than you would be in on your own, and it declines cases on that basis.

Nothing settles without you

Every offer reaches you as it arrives, along with a straight view of whether it is fair. The decision is yours and it stays yours, which is a lower bar than it sounds and not everybody clears it.

Local, and it matters

Both attorneys are from Lafayette, the office is across the street from the courthouse, and the relationships that come with fifty years in one town tend to make the process move rather than stall.

The honest limits are scope and certainty. This firm takes personal injury and wrongful death work and nothing else - no closings, no wills, no family law - and you will hear that on the first call rather than in month three. And no attorney can responsibly value your claim or state your deadline before the medical picture and the evidence exist. Anybody who does is quoting a marketing figure.

About working with the firm

Which of them would handle my case?

Ask on the first call - it is a fair question and worth asking of any firm. Both attorneys practise exclusively in personal injury, and both are listed on every practice area the firm handles.

Is it really just the two of them?

Two attorneys, plus legal assistants and staff. The firm describes its team as attorneys, legal assistants and staff knowledgeable of the law and your case. For a practice that takes one kind of work, that is a deliberate size rather than a limitation.

They are father and son. Does that matter?

Practically it means the firm has had continuity of judgement in one town since 1974, and that a case does not get handed between strangers. Jeffrey opened the office; Aaron joined in 1997 and has been there since.

What does 'AV Preeminent' actually mean?

It is Martindale-Hubbell's highest peer-review rating, given on the anonymous opinions of other members of the bar and the judiciary, covering legal ability and ethical standards. It is an assessment by other lawyers and judges, not a client review and not a purchase.

How do I reach them?

Call 765-340-2776. The firm states an attorney or an experienced legal assistant is available twenty-four hours a day, and the first conversation is free.

Talk to an attorney, not an intake queue.

The first conversation is free and it commits you to nothing. Call 765-340-2776, the firm says somebody is there around the clock.

Call the office

Visit the office

Contacting Cooke Law Firm or Cooke Law Firm does not create an attorney-client relationship, and nothing on this site is legal advice. Please do not send confidential information until a written engagement is in place. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.