The family of a New York University sophomore who died of mysterious causes has retained the law firm of celebrity attorney Johnnie Cochran to investigate the student’s death.

The Cochran Firm, a personal-injury law practice founded by the man who helped acquit O.J. Simpson, is looking into how Spenser Kimbrough, a seemingly healthy 19-year-old drama student from Staten Island, suddenly fell ill in his dormitory on September 1 and died hours later at NYU Downtown Hospital.

“We want to really find out what happened,” said Joseph Rosato, a partner at the firm and lead attorney in the case. “This was a young, healthy, vibrant young man with much to live for and…no prior health problems.”

The city medical examiner’s office, which has not determined the cause of death, is expected to release results of toxicology and tissue-sample tests next week.

Kimbrough’s death came less than a week before the start of the fall semester and five days before the apparent suicide of 23-year-old Joanne Michelle Leavy, adding more grief to a school that has seen seven students die in a year.

Mr. Rosato said he was planning to set up a meeting with NYU’s vice president for public affairs, John Beckman, to find out more about Kimbrough’s death. No date has been set.

Mr. Rosato’s private investigator has contacted the student newspaper, Washington Square News.

He said the firm has “no plans at the moment” to take legal action against the hospital or the school.

Details of Kimbrough’s death are sketchy. In the early hours of September 1, after he returned to his dormitory on Lafayette Street after a night out with friends, Kimbrough began to feel ill and told a friend to call 911.

Kimbrough remained conscious on the way to the hospital.

According to Kimbrough’s mother, Valerie Kimbrough, her son’s heart began racing at the hospital and then slowed until stopping. Doctors gave him heart-stimulating drugs, she said, but failed to revive him.

Doctors told her Kimbrough said he had been smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol, but his mother doesn’t believe it. “He was so against people doing [marijuana],” she said, saying the hospital did not test for any of those drugs to verify what her son had said.

A hospital spokesman was not available for comment. A spokesman for NYU, Josh Taylor, said NYU has fully cooperated with the NYPD.

The Cochran Firm is known for taking on high-profile police-abuse cases and representing celebrities.