Law is about the serious business of fresh air vs. hard time, prosperity vs. bankruptcy, possession and nine-tenths. The only humor related to law ”“ or so you”™d think ”“ starts out something like: A skunk, a rabid dog and a lawyer walk into a bar ”¦ and it”™s never pretty for the lawyer. The world of music isn”™t much better, if lonelier, featuring Jackson Brown”™s muffled cries of lawyers in love and a lot of dead air after that.
Lawrence Savell to the rescue. For the lawyers of the world, tired of the bottom-feeder jokes and no Doors hits to call their own, it has fallen on the broad shoulders of Savell to give them a better reputation through music and humor.
“It”™s partly about putting a better face on the legal profession and partly about personal dreams,” Savell says of his four CDs. “It”™s one step on a long path toward getting people to view lawyers as more approachable.”
Savell, 49, and admittedly fluent from a young age in the lingua franca of Tom Lehrer and Allan Sherman, got his start doing parodies at his Cornell University fraternity. He kept up his satiric riffs at the University of Michigan Law School, where he developed enough of a fan base to be invited back to perform as an alumnus.
After law school, Savell went to work for Chadbourne & Parke L.L.P. He still practices at the New York City firm as a defense attorney. While his music tends to be irreverent, if always rated G, he takes the law as seriously as one would hope. “We help people with nowhere else to turn. They put their future in your hands. It”™s like being a doctor ”“ I can”™t imagine a greater responsibility.”
He specializes in product liability and media law, explaining, “For a defense lawyer, the ideal situation is that the judge dismisses the case before it goes to trial. In a sense, going to trial is a defeat because you”™re exposing your client to a potential adverse judgment. What I do is marshal the facts and the law to convince the judge the case should not go forward.”
He advised a trade publication on a series of investigative articles. “They called daily, if not hourly, for advice on libel issues. The subjects of these stories ”“ in particular their lawyers ”“ were contemplating suing. A couple of months later, the subjects were indicted and the publication won the equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize for the business press (the Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award for Excellence in News Coverage).”
Savell has sold about a thousand CDs and has been favorably reviewed by the Georgetown Law Review. His fourth effort ”“ “Live at Blackacre” ”“ features a catchy number about Della Street, Perry Mason”™s aide-de-camp with the impeccable posture: “You knew she would be discreet ”¦ Yes I became a lawyer to meet Della Street.” Della would have known about Blackacre, a fictional place name in property law classes.
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Savell”™s music can drift about three degrees into the realm of seriousness, but no further. “Law Man” is, forgive the pun, such a case: “If you worked for a promotion, but then you saw / The boss gave it to his worthless son-in-law / just pick up the telephone, e-mail or fax / And I”™ll be there to get the justice you lack.”
Says Savell: “My music is more than just making people laugh, even if poignant may be too strong a word. It”™s trying to inject humor into law in a positive and not a demeaning way.”
Savell”™s wife is Catherine and they have a pair of boys, 6 and 7 years old. He records at home in Croton-on-Hudson and says with a laugh some of what might be perceived as deep-bass percussion is Catherine stomping on the floor, urging quiet from the legal Slowhand in the house.
Savell plays at Chadbourne & Parke functions. He bought his current guitar ”“ a Rickenbacker model 360 ”“ with his first paycheck from the firm in 1982. He admits to venturing into terra incognita when he stood before his coworkers at a holiday party early in his tenure. “Chadbourne had blue memos,” he says. “I did ”˜Blue Memos”™ to ”˜Blue Suede Shoes.”™ I finished. My entire career is hanging in the balance. Silence. And I thought, ”˜I am now unemployed.”™ Then there was a thunderous reaction.” So he”™s still at it, even co-opting other legal talent for an in-house band that, as he puts it, “comes and goes.”
Savell is that rarest of artists: beholden to no one; in it for the fun and for the joy of creativity, not unlike the person who sings in the shower, only better and with CDs to show for his efforts.
“I”™m never going to make a mountain of money on this and I”™m never going to win a Grammy. It”™s the reaction of people who have an interest in this, and who enjoy listening to it, that pushes me to do it.”
Besides “Live at Blackacre,” Savell”™s CDs include: “The Lawyer”™s Holiday Christmas Album,” “Legal Holidaze” and “Merry Lexmas from the LawTunes.” To learn more about probably the only artist to acknowledge the grown-up need for antacids on an album cover, visit www.lawtunes.com.
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