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‘How the Rules of Evidence Handcuff the Piano Man’ and more from the Billy Joel law conference
03.24.2015
12:11 pm
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Billy Joel surveys the damage done by a rock-throwing hoodlum
 
If you’re like me, you can’t hear the Billy Joel song “All for Leyna” without wondering whether Leyna would have benefited a solid grounding in tort and accident law. And Brenda and Eddie, from “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant,” who “got a divorce as a matter of course,” who represented them in that legal matter? Well,  wonder no more.

In Central Islip, NY, legal scholars from all over North America gathered to honor Long Island’s foremost bard, Billy Joel with academia’s most esteemed form of celebration: the academic conference. Yes, that’s right: the Touro Law Center hosted a two-day conference called “Billy Joel and the Law” at the Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center on March 22 and 23.

The program promised the following: “Speakers at the conference will include judges, lawyers, law professors, and music scholars, who will discuss ways in which Billy Joel’s work relates to American law, society, and culture.” The brainy festivities included “a wine and cheese reception with musical performances related to the educational content of the program.” No, in case you were wondering, Billy Joel did not supply the music for the conference. 

There were the usual paper titles that played on Joel’s song and album titles, such as “Downeaster Alexa: a Perfect Storm of Regulations,” “Behind the Nylon Curtain: Billy Joel, the Reagan Revolution, and the Unraveling of the ‘Me’ Generation,” and “The Minstrel Testifies or How the Rules of Evidence Handcuff the Piano Man.” How did they neglect to do anything with “You May Be Right.” And not a single mention of “Lawyers in Love”!! (Oh wait, that’s Jackson Browne.)

Here’s my best guess as to what Billy Joel would have looked like had he not become a rock and roll troubadour but instead had decided to become a law professor:
 

 
via Lawyers, Guns, and Money

Posted by Martin Schneider
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03.24.2015
12:11 pm
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Sex sells, but can it litigate? Lawyer makes commercial with dirty-talking doll
01.06.2015
05:40 pm
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The Law Offices of Michael A. Fiumara (specializing in personal injury, criminal defense, juvenile law, family law and education law) want to make it perfectly clear that they do not discriminate against anyone—and that includes dirty-talking “novelty” dolls. In the utterly confusing commercial embedded below Mr. Fiumara has apparently decided that the best possible advertisement for his services would be the R-rated testimony of a “Miss Candy Wolinsky” (I’m guessing on the spelling of her name here, but I don’t anticipate her complaining to my editor) who wants the attorney to take off his clothes so she can “go down” on him.

Unfortunately, Candy appears to be unable to control her voracious sexual appetite in the presence of one of the National Top 100 Trial Lawyers in America. Fiumara, always the consummate professional, rejects her rather too forward advances and gives her a referral—what a gentleman!

This guy really is a real attorney, so if you’re in Sonoma County, Marin County or North Bay region of California, I think you should hire him. He even respects slatternly potty-mouthed dolls and treats them with courtesy. What more of an endorsement do you need?
 

 
Via Above the Law, h/t to Eric M. Fink

Posted by Amber Frost
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01.06.2015
05:40 pm
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Rappers and their Jewish lawyers: A love in supercut
08.08.2013
04:39 pm
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Snoop and lawyer Donald Etra
Snoop Dogg and his legal representative, Orthodox Jew Donald Etra in 2007
 
From Abel Meeropol to Leiber and Stoller to Carole King to The Beastie Boys, there’s always been a Jewish presence among Afrocentric art forms. Perhaps it’s a shared sense of marginality, perhaps it’s the ethnogeography of urban life, but any monograph on jazz, rock ‘n’ roll, or hip-hop worth its (kosher) salt is going to mention a lot of Jewish names.

But what of the lesser-heralded administrative roles in the music industry? Should you be inclined to prattle off tired old lawyer jokes, let us remember that black artists have a long history of being swindled by record companies and railroaded in court. Yes, the ladies and gentlemen of the tribe have been at many a rapper’s side when the times got tough, so much so that it’s a “thing.”

And now we have a formal commemoration of this very special relationship, in a super cut of shout-outs!
 

 
Via Vulture

Posted by Amber Frost
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08.08.2013
04:39 pm
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