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Friday, March 16, 2018
Whisky a Go Go
$95,300 in total fundraising

Winner: Privileged Communications of Perkins Coie rocking for City of Hope
Judges' Choice Award: Big Dicta of Doll Amir Eley for Redondo Beach Police Foundation

A fantastic night at the 7th Annual Law Rock Los Angeles Friday! Seven bands delivered amazing performances and raised significant funds for awesome local nonprofits. The Whisky A Go-Go was full of enthusiastic fans cheering on their favorite lawyers-turned-rockstars! Total fundraising for the night topped $95,000. The winner of the evening was Privileged Communications of Perkins Coie LLP who raised over $10,000 for City of Hope! Judges' Choice went to Big Dicta of Doll Amir & Eley. Major thanks to all of the bands for fundraising and rocking their hearts out!

A tremendous thank you to sponsors Perkins Coie LLP, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete, LLP, Buchalter, Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp LLP, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, Hire Counsel, and Secretariat International! We could not do Law Rocks without you.

Giant thanks to the esteemed Rock Panel: Shawn Dailey, Joe Trofinio, Dan Flores, and Brian McDonald, our emcee extraordinaire Ted Stryker, and the awesome team at the Whisky a Go Go.

Lastly huge thanks to each and every audience member and donor who came out and contributed! You rock!!

Event Fact Sheet

Featured

Attractive Nuisance

2017 Saturday champs & Judges' Choice Award winners!
With legal talent from Allen Matkins and Buchalter
Rocking for Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice

Attractive Nuisance roared onto the Whisky stage in 2014 for its inaugural Law Rocks! set. The Nuisance won the Judges' Choice Award in 2016 and won both the Saturday night concert and the Judges' Choice Award in 2017. Since last year’s event, the Nuisance has played gigs all over Southern California, from Agoura Hills to Hermosa Beach. Law Rocks is thrilled that the Nuisance is bringing back its mosh-inspiring sound for 2018 in support of the Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice (LACLJ). The LACLJ is a free legal clinic in East LA providing services primarily to domestic violence survivors. The Nuisance could not be more proud to represent these brave individuals.

Big Dicta

With legal talent from Doll Amir & Eley
Rocking Saturday for Redondo Beach Police Foundation

2015 champs and 2016 Judges' Choice Award winners, BIG DICTA, are back and ready to rock! Doll Amir & Eley lawyers, Sunset Strip veterans -- the danger of rocking too hard is indeed present. This year, all amps will be set at 11.5 and more cowbell is guaranteed.

The Doughboys

Featuring legal talent from Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman
Rocking for ALS Association - Golden West Chapter

Don’t let the name fool you. The Doughboys rock it hard. Mixing original lyrics to familiar beats and riffs, they are as deft with a mic as they are with a memo. The quintet from Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman will rock for the ALS Association’s Golden West Chapter, and they’re ready to prove that it’s all about that bassoon, ‘bout that bassoon, no treble.

Down By Law

With legal talent from Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete; Reed Smith
Rocking for LACBA Counsel for Justice

As hard-core devotees of the Starland Vocal Band, we first met at the Annual SVB Convention in Dubuque in 2012. Upon realizing that we that we all worked for the same law firm, we spontaneously broke into a 4 and a half-part harmony of “Afternoon Delight.” After that, we knew that we had to form our own band to make awesome music together. Our motto: OBOS!

Matthew Umhofer

With talent from Spertus, Landes & Umhofer
Rocking for Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles

Law Rocks is a bit like life—you get to pretend you’re a rock star when in fact you’re middle management. Matthew Umhofer embodies this, returning to the stage steeped in both pretense and mediocrity. Just ask his partners at the internationally unrenowned law firm of Spertus, Landes & Umhofer, who successfully convinced him that everybody always remembers the guy after the ampersand—we all forget that Skadden dude, but everybody knows Flom’s the bomb, amirite?

Matthew is a Grammy award-viewing artist best known for last year’s stomach-churning rendition of Danger Zone, which offended Kenny Loggins, Maverick, and the Iceman for very different reasons. This year, Matthew will be performing again on behalf of the Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles, an esteemed and venerable organization that appreciates his enthusiasm but respectfully requests that he not do the part where he sings this year.

To prepare for this year’s epic rock sesh, he’ll be taking time off from his full time jobs: (i) getting his colleagues to do as much of his work as possible while claiming credit for the wins; (ii) convincing his young daughters that Patrick Swayze’s performance in Roadhouse was Oscar-worthy; and (iii) tending his office shrine to Robert Mueller while repeatedly whispering, “Please hurry.”

The MSKeatles

2017 Friday Judges' Choice Award winners!
With legal talent from Mitchell, Silberberg & Knupp
Rocking for Mental Health Advocacy Services (MHAS)

MSK/Y2K will again be playing to support Mental Health Advocacy Services (MHAS), an organization dedicated to providing free legal services to those with mental health disabilities. It’s a truly inspiring organization, led by a man who has devoted his entire legal career to helping the most vulnerable in our society. They deserve your support.

Privileged Communications

2017 Friday night champs!
Starring legal professionals from Perkins Coie
Rocking for City of Hope

Privileged Communications formed in early 2013 to represent Perkins Coie in the Law Rocks! competition in Hollywood, California against other firms such as Latham & Watkins and DLA Piper. Privileged Communications comprises partner Michael Wise on lead vocals, partner Joe Hamilton on guitar, counsel Lara Dueppen and associate Oliver Gold on keyboards and drums, respectively, and non-Perkins attorney Niall Fordyce on bass. While Privileged Communications does not have any available recordings currently, the group is in contract discussions with several large record labels and expects to perform at the Super Bowl Halftime Show within the next few years.

Featured

2018

Joe Trofino

Joe Trofino is the Associate General Counsel and a senior executive in the Legal Affairs Department at ICM Partners, one of the world’s largest talent and literary agencies with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and London, where he focuses on general corporate legal matters including litigation, corporate contracts, regulatory compliance, insurance matters, real estate, employment, business development and legal policy matters. The agency represents creative and technical talent in the fields of motion picture, television, books, music, live performance, branded entertainment, and new media. Mr. Trofino joined ICM Partners in 2008. Mr. Trofino currently lives in Culver City with his wife, Melissa, and 4 year old son/2032 NHL first round draft prospect, Crosby.

Dan Flores

Dan Flores is a Senior Vice President and the head of litigation at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. Prior to joining MGM in 2013, he practiced in the Los Angeles office of Gibson Dunn in the areas of entertainment, intellectual property, and antitrust law. Dan received his J.D. degree from Columbia Law School in 2002 and graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in Music from the University of Nevada Las Vegas in 1999. He serves on the board of the Jazz Education Network, the leading organization supporting college and high school jazz educators and students, and he has previously served on the President’s Council at the Colburn School. Dan currently plays tenor saxophone with Gary Greene and His Big Band of Barristers, an institution in the Los Angeles legal community that has allegedly been declared as America’s #1 Legal Band by the American Bar Association. Once upon a time he could also play clarinet, guitar, bass, and piano reasonably well but now he is admittedly kind of a hack. Dan’s favorite non-lawyer band is Fishbone.

Brian McDonald

Brian McDonald founded Thump Radio, Inc., in 1999 while in his 2nd year of law school. He served as President of Thump Radio until 2006 - overseeing Thump Radio's growth into the first nationally syndicated radio show specializing in the global underground sound of psytrance, guitar trance, techno, drum'n'bass, and house. In the early 2000s Thump Radio was the first to broadcast weekly 2 hour extended sets by the likes of future superstars such as Infected Mushroom, Bassnectar, Shpongle, S.U.N. Project, and Kaskade on FM stations and continent-wide on XM Satellite Radio. Brian also produced over 150 live events in the Bay Area and LA.

Since leaving Thump Radio, Brian became a new media product specialist working for Fox Interactive Media, Demand Media, and Live Nation. He now works as a consultant to a variety of technology, media and film production companies in the LA area. He recently launched a beta version of his new radio endeavor, Psybiza Radio, exclusively on www.psybiza.com.

Michael J. Rastigue

Insurance industry executive (Jardine Lloyd Thompson)
Business manager for rock band, "Leopold and his Fiction"
Husband, father, step-father, grandpaman, brother, uncle, fly fisherperson, hunter, Cuban-cigar snob
Graduate of Michigan Tech University and Oakland University (MBA)

Shawn Dailey

Shawn Dailey has been a professional touring and recording musician since the age of 17. Most recently he played bass for Courtney Love / Hole. He has also toured and recorded with several other critically acclaimed rock bands. He currently serves as Executive Director for the Take Me to The River Music Education Initiative, a charity that seeks to inspire a deeper understanding of civil rights, music history, and cross-generational collaboration.