Eric Cochling '99

Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Georgia Center for Opportunity

Witherspoon Fellow

Public policy can’t guarantee prosperity of any sort, but good policy can help put people in a position to achieve their potential. That’s the goal of the Georgia Center for Opportunity, the Peach State’s preeminent conservative think tank.

Heading up GCO’s public policy team is native Georgian Eric Cochling ‘99. Eric oversees the research, writing, and advocacy for policies that remove barriers to opportunity and prosperity. Eric is a licensed attorney and was in private practice for eight years, but his time as a Witherspoon Fellow equipped him to get involved in leadership in his state—where the fellowship’s lessons about what it means to be human have informed his public service.

And he’s not working alone. Eric has had a hand in populating GCO’s staff heavily with John Jay Institute alumni, including Jamie Lord ‘00 (director of government affairs), and researchers Jacob Stubbs ‘13, Michael Schulte ‘12, and Andrew House ‘11. Cochling remarks, “It’s an honor and a privilege to be working with a group of people who all share a passion and a vision for improving conditions for those in need.”

Eric also serves as Co-Chair of the Individual Rights Section of the State Bar of Georgia, and represents GCO on the Governor’s Office Human Trafficking Task Force. He and his wife Laura have three children and live in Lawrenceville, Georgia.