Who is this woman? Over at our sister site Dealbreaker, they’ve been talking about her for months and months on end.
She emerged on the banking protest scene back in April, when she dressed as a dominatrix (and later as a police officer) and promised to offer Citi execs a spanking as the “Bank Reform Bitch.” In early May, she reemerged as the “Ethical Fiscal Fairy” to fight the good fight against Bank of America. At the end of the month, “Bank Reform Bitch” came back to stick her stiletto straight up Jamie Dimon’s ass. On the last day of May, she became “Darla, the Desperate for Justice Housewife,” hoping to bring attention to the laundering of HSBC’s money. In July, she emerged from her cocoon and transformed into the “Better Banking Butterfly” to weigh in on derivative reform. Tomorrow, she’ll be at a press conference with the HSBC whistleblower to bitch about the bank’s blood money, all while waving a money fan.
Again, we’ve got to ask: who is this woman? Well, for starters, she’s a lawyer….
[E-BOOK] 5 AI Productivity Hacks To Save Time And Streamline Your Law Firm
Discover five practical ways to harness AI and eliminate busywork—so you can focus more on your clients and less on repetitive tasks.
Meet Marni Halasa, a 1992 graduate of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. She passed the Pennsylvania bar exam that same year, and then went on to graduate from Columbia’s School of Journalism with a master’s in legal reporting. Her studies culminated in a job at the New York Law Journal, which she held for nearly a decade before she decided to break out of the mold and let her freak flag fly.
Prior to becoming a pulchritudinous protest princess, Halasa worked as a professional figure skater and parade personality. Here are some additional details from a 2009 New York Daily News article:
Self-described “parade addict” Marni Halasa struts her stuff at almost all the city’s best street spectacles: the Puerto Rican Day Parade, the Halloween Parade, the Dance Parade and more.
“I just can’t get enough,” said Halasa. “It’s like a drug for me.”
Halasa, 43, gave up a buttoned-down life in the law to indulge her love of dance, fun and glitter.
“My parents look at me now and think, ‘How is this crazy woman our daughter?'” the Manhattan woman said with a laugh. “It was not what I was meant to be.”
Decrypting Crypto, Digital Assets, And Web3
"Decrypting Crypto" is a go-to guide for understanding the technology and tools underlying Web3 and issues raised in the context of specific legal practice areas.
Get it, girl! Marni Halasa is almost 50 years old, but she doesn’t look a day over 25. See for yourself:
When it comes to the art of protesting, we must bow down before Halasa, because she is clearly the queen. “What better means, I believed, than to take my already-polished abilities to spread the message of social and political exchange,” she said in a recent interview with the Digital Journal. See, folks, the law school deans were right: you can use a law degree to do just about anything.
If she takes requests, we’d absolutely love it if one of Bank Reform Bitch’s next signs included a shout-out to Above the Law — which would be really easy to do when dealing with our brazen banking system.
(Click through to the next page to see some additional pictures of Marni Halasa’s protest pageantry.)