How Can Lawyers Make It In the Movie Biz? Ask Marc Simon

[WSJ_law_blog]

In fact, many wannabe screenwriters find themselves going to law school, misled by adults into thinking that it will help them get into the movie business. It won’t. Sure, you can be a talent agent or a movie producer with a law degree, but you can be one without a degree, too. Most of the skills you learn in law school (and legal practice) won’t help you make a movie . . . . — “Law School by Default,” by Cameron Stracher, the WSJ (June, 2006)



When we read Stracher’s advice, way back in 2006, it carried the ring of truth. But, still, we didn’t like it. Here at the Law Blog, we like to think that, with a little imagination and stick-to-itiveness, JDs can do and be anything their hearts desire. So it really made our Friday when we discovered that on Saturday, Marc Simon, an entertainment lawyer at Dreier LLP, will premiere his second feature film at the Hot Docs film festival in Toronto. The movie is “Nursery University,” about the “blood sport” that is the preschool admissions process in New York City.

We called Simon (UPenn, Cardozo law, and pictured, left), who is up in Toronto preparing to roll out his movie.

Hi Marc. Thanks for chatting. So how’d you first get into making movies?

Between college and law school I worked on a film as a production assistant in L.A. with David Duchovny, Angelina Jolie and Timothy Hutton. It was called “Playing God.” Then I came back to New York and worked as a legal assistant for Coudert Brothers, did some acting work on the side, and worked as a teacher at a private school. Then I went back to law school after being out of college for a couple of years.

When did you return to filmmaking?

At law school I had this experience in a clinic called the Innocence Project. Everything about the experience was cinematic. On the first day of class in the clinic, an exoneree had just gotten out of jail and literally came right to our class with his lawyer. From day one, I found the individuals and their stories so inspiring. These guys would get out of prison, and they were on the front page of the Times and they were celebrated. But I realized that once the journalists went away, these guys were left with nothing. They still had the stigma. So when I got out of law school, I wanted to make a film about what happens to them when they get out. By the time I started as an associate at Loeb & Loeb I was already beginning to develop “After Innocence.” I graduated from Cardozo in 2001, and the film premiered at Sundance at 2005.

Did you ever do anymore acting?

As a lawyer at Loeb, I had a small speaking role in “25th Hour,” a Spike Lee movie.

Ed Norton was great in that. So when did you go to Dreier?

I spent one year at Loeb and then found out about the opportunity at Dreier. When I was told about the firm I went and met Marc Dreier. You know how there’s always that question at the end of the interview where they ask whether there’s anything else you want to ask? Here, I felt so comfortable, I said, I want to tell you now that I’ve been working on a film based on my experience in the Innocence Project. He didn’t hesitate. He said, this firm is about people who are not cookie cutter. The firm was completely supportive.

So you’re filmmaking career was getting off the ground. How about the legal career?

When I first met with Marc, Dreier was still in its infancy. It started out as a smaller litigation firm, and there wasn’t an entertainment group. But he said he was going to start one and that my background would suit it. An entertainment practice did develop, and there’s no doubt that my experience in film was helpful in my ability to be an attorney in the practice. Now, my practice is mainly film and TV transactional work, and my clients are producers and filmmakers in New York and L.A. I do soup-to-nuts, from financing to helping in the selling phases.

Well, to be honest, the whole reason we called you was because you seemed like proof that a legal career and a film career can co-exist. Do you have any advice to law students looking for a similar path?

What you often hear is that the best thing you can do is go to a corporate firm and get corporate experience. I don’t discount that, but my story shows there’s another way to do that. The big issue is that you have to immerse yourself in that world — know people in the industry, read trade papers, and just generally know the business. I know that that’s a big reason why I’ve been able to build a client base, because my clients know that I know the filmmaking business.

OK, so tell us a bit about how your new film, “Nursery University,” came together.

It was happenstance. I walked into the office of a colleague “Robert Grand” he had twin daughters in New York City — and he was telling me about the crazy process getting his daughters into nursery school. He had an interview that day, and was saying how expensive and competitive it is. One of us — either him or me — said this had to be my next film, and thus it was born. There it was again: my law life and my film life coalescing.

What’s the theme of the documentary?

Overall, people, especially in this upper class New York community, are very competitive and want to do their best with their children, and help them get a leg up. Pre-school in Manhattan is a club culture, like anything else, in that people use the people they know to help them get their kids in. But the truth is, there’s a lack of space. So it’s this perfect storm. And this problem is spreading in all the major cities. The film asks, are we putting too much pressure on children? Is there this thing called a cult of achievement that’s unhealthy?

Sounds really interesting. We’re assuming you have kids, no?

Actually, I’m not married and I don’t have kids. Probably because I’m working too much.

Thanks Marc, and good luck with the premiere tomorrow.

No problem. Thanks.