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From Music to Law and Back Again

I don't know what's in the water at Boston's Meehan, Boyle, Black & Bogdanow, but I do know I want to get me some. On lawyering alone, this eight-lawyer PI firm is nationally known for a string of million-dollar verdicts and settlements. As to bar involvement, one need look no further than firm founder Leo V. Boyle, who as president of the American Association of Justice at the time of the Sept. 11 attacks (when it was still ATLA) was instrumental in bringing about the federal Victim Compensation Fund and in creating Trial Lawyers Care, a national organization of volunteer attorneys created to help victims' families. And then there are the lawyers' lives outside of law. Partner Michael Bogdanow, for example, has long had a successful parallel career as a painter and sculptor.

Now the firm can claim a recording artist among its ranks. Karen R. Ristuben, who is of counsel to the firm, recently released Too Much, her debut CD as a jazz singer. This is no mere vanity pressing -- the CD was produced by Mason Daring, the lawyer-turned-musician who has scored all of John Sayles's films (he was an entertainment lawyer when Sayles asked him to score Return of the Secaucus Seven), was recorded on a sub-label of Rounder Records, and features a who's who of backup musicians.

For Ristuben, it was a circuitous route that took her from music to art to law then back to art and finally again to music, as this recent profile of her relates. She started out playing the guitar, then went to art school and then to law school. After representing plaintiffs in med-mal cases for several years, she felt a pull to do something else. That led her to the decision to scale back at the firm and return to school to study art and then to become an art teacher in a high school. From there, she began studying guitar again, an instrument she had not played in decades, and then started voice lessons. Music led her to working and performing with Daring and ultimately to her new release.

The CD features a number of old-time jazz standards, such as "Stars Fell on Alabama," "I'll Be Seeing You" and "Cry Me A River." According to the profile of Ristuben, a Boston-area public-radio host said her interpretations bring to mind the voices of Julie London and Peggy Lee. He is close to the mark, I can attest; she lives not far from me and I've heard her perform live. You can judge for yourself by ordering Ristuben's CD from her Web site.

And, yes, she continues to practice law part-time. It's got to be something in the water.

Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on May 13, 2008 at 01:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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