Lawers songs & money

• Author: Victor Li
• Pages: 38-45

PHO TO-

or lawyers, b eing mocked or even a ttacked

in pop culture goe s with the territor y.

Between William Shakespeare’s famous

line about killi ng lawyers to th e many, many

movies and shows p ortraying law yers as sleazy,

unethical or d ownright evil, it seems as if law yers

rank somewhere between used-car salesmen and

the devil on the scale of likability.

So it may be sur prising to lear n that, com-

paratively, there do n’t seem to be n early as

many songs abou t hating lawyer s. Perhaps it’s

because behin d every successful musician

stands an army of top lawyers a nd law fi rms

ready to spring i nto action. Whe ther it’s fi lin g

suit to get out of a bad record contra ct, defend-

ing against plagiarism accusations or even

appearing at a rraignments to a rgue for bail,

musicians have lo ng realized that th ey need to

have their attorn eys on speed dial . There’s little

to be gained by a lienating or att acking them in

song.

Occasionally, a b and or artist will be involved

in a lawsuit so grou ndbreaking and important

that it will set a precedent—eith er one that’s

enshrined in th e law that can b e followed by

everyone, or one that is less o cial but never -

theless binds future generations. Here are some

of the songs or albums that help ed move the law.

PHOTO BY BRENAN SHARP/SHUTTERSTOCK

38 || ABA JOURNAL JULY-AUGUST 2019