Friday, May 27, 2022

Songs about Lawyers #5: "Don't Be a Lawyer"

Burl Moseley

     Songs about Lawyers Week concludes with a bang. Thank you for indulging me. 


     In case you didn't check out the Justia web site mentioned yesterday, let me plug one can't-miss song from their round-up, the joyful, pointed and altogether true "Don't Be a Lawyer" performed by Burl Moseley during season four of the CW show "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend."
     This is too much  fun to overlook. Great production values, solid dancing, true lyrics: "The job is inherently crappy/that's why you've never met a lawyer's who's happy."
     Here's an irony: Moseley, made his TV debut on "Law & Order."
     Although, despite all the shade tossed on the profession, in this and the other songs I've featured this week, there is deep dark secret that I've noticed manifested by the actual lawyers I've come to know: many people love the work. Some are really well paid. And a few even manage to do some good, from time to time. There, I said it.

5 comments:

  1. Loved Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. So many witty musical interludes. My favorite is Let’s Have Intercourse (if I can use that word here).

    I, too, know several lawyers who are decent (or better) people and like what they do.

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    1. Crazy Ex-Grilfriend was brilliant. I was sad when it ended.

      Great song Neil, I'd forgotten about it.

      I've known happy, healthy, balanced lawyers as well as some who were unhappy, unethical, and/or unhelpful.

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  2. My connection to Chicago started with my son’s admission to Northwestern’s Law School. Everyone asked him, “What kind of law do you intend to practice.” His answer was always, “I’m not sure.”
    After one and a half years of getting A’s and B’s he still didn’t have an answer. Rather than finishing and maybe using the degree for something else he followed his heart and now teaches in Chicago.
    Best decision he ever made.

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  3. Studs Terkel (1912-2008) received his undergraduate degree in 1932 and a J.D. degree from the University of Chicago in 1934 (and was admitted to the Illinois Bar the following year). But he decided that instead of practicing law, he wanted to be a concierge at a hotel, and he soon joined a theater group.

    Studs was a leftist who joined the WPA's Federal Writers' Project, working in radio. He did voicing on soap opera productions, announced news and sports, was a jazz DJ in the 40s, and wrote radio scripts and advertisement spots. He was briefly on network TV (in the early 50s) before becoming a writer, historian, actor, and radio broadcaster.

    Studs received the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1985 (for "The Good War"). He is best known for his oral histories of ordinary Americans, and for his radio show on WFMT, which aired for 45 years. Not a bad track record for a lawyer who never practiced.

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  4. Fun video, entertaining but as big an exaggeration as a Trump media event. The three lawyers I know best, one a partner in a major firm, and two public defenders, one who is a sitting Cook County judge, are all exceedingly happy.

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