Lawyerly Shout-Outs at the Oscars

“The winners never thank their lawyers,” said AmLaw Daily recently in an interview with James Cameron’s attorneys. But some lawyers did get love at the Oscars this year, as noted by Business Insider:

If you paid close attention to last night’s Oscar ceremony, amid the tears and triumphs, a couple of lawyers got their thanks.

If you paid close attention, we’re sorry — because you probably noticed Kristen Stewart hawking up something during her speech, and how scary Judd Nelson looked during the John Hughes montage. Overall, the show was painful to watch.
We stuck around long enough to see Best Supporting Actress Mo’Nique give her lawyer, Ricky Anderson, a nod. But when dancers came out on the stage to “interpret” Sherlock Holmes, we turned off the TV in disgust. Thus, we missed out on Jeff Bridges thanking his power lawyer, Bob Wallerstein.
Let’s take a closer look at these two celebrated attorneys.


Bob Wallerstein is a well-known power lawyer at the talent boutique Hirsch Wallerstein Hayum Matlof & Fishman. In 2005, he told the Hollywood Reporter:

“At the end of the day, if the money doesn’t come through, or the talent is double-booked, we’re the ones who get the call asking, ‘What do we do?”…We’re dealing with the lawyers at the studios, the lawyers for the banks. And if we’re doing our job properly, all of it is out of the public view.”

Ricky Anderson’s name is less well-known, possibly because he’s based in Houston instead of L.A. He’s a managing partner of Anderson & Smith and adjunct professor at Texas Southern’s Thurgood Marshall School of Law. He has an impressive client list; in addition to Mo’Nique, his clients include Steve Harvey, Yolanda Adams, Isaiah Washington, Rickey Smiley, and, previously, Tupac Shakur.
A reader points out, though, that Anderson’s website has worse production values than last night’s Oscars show:

Seeing the clip art decorating the html frames is like taking a time machine back to 1998.

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On the bright side, you can make payments via Paypal there.
In the AmLaw Daily interview with Cameron’s attorneys — Bonnie Eskenazi and Candace Carlo of Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman & Machtinger, who have represented many Oscar winners over the years — Dimitra Kessenides asked whether clients winning Oscars is beneficial for their attorneys:

Carlo: Certainly it means stature, but for actors and directors of a certain stature, the [awards] don’t necessarily translate into more roles, since they’re already big names. Hans [Zimmer, film score composer] and Jim [Cameron] are sought out, they’re always going to get work. For someone like Robbie Kenner [co-director of Food, Inc., nominated for best documentary feature], it probably will make a difference for him. The others are of such of stature that it won’t make a big difference.

So Mo’Nique’s big win may lead to bigger things for Anderson. At the very least, he can add some Oscar clip art to his website. That is, if Quinn Emanuel partner David Quinto will allow it.
And the Oscar Goes To… [AmLaw Daily]
Lawyers Get Some Oscar Love [Business Insider]

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