Asshole Attorney: Musings, Memories, and Missteps in a 40 Year Career

“Doug, I been practicin’ law for fifty years. And I learned a long time ago, there ain’t no such word as ‘attorney’ or ‘lawyer’. It’s ‘asshole attorney’ or ‘fuckin’ lawyer.’ "Author Douglas Wood first heard that advice from a southern lawyer nearly forty years ago. It was his inspiration to write Asshole Attorney, a book of observations and reflections over his lifetime and legal career. A self-proclaimed “Army Brat”, Doug moved to eight different homes throughout his childhood. His last move from Hawaii to Rutherford, NJ was a tough one, especially when faced with years of cold, snowy winters in lieu of sandy beaches and warm sunsets. His madcap journey included college in Rhode Island, three law degrees, working with out-of-control rock stars, dealing with international crises in the dark alleys of Eastern Europe, and a partnership in one of the world's leading law firms. Readers will be charmed by Wood’s candor and humor and will laugh aloud at his sharp, witty commentary as he navigates the pathways of his life and the jungles of his profession.DOUGLAS J. WOOD is the author of fiction and non-fiction including the award-winning Samantha Harrison political trilogy, Please Be Ad-Vised: A Legal Reference Guide for the Advertising Executive, and 101 Things I Want to Say…the Collection, a book of fatherly advice. A partner at Reed Smith LLP, he has over 40 years of experience practicing entertainment and media law. He works in New York, lives in New Jersey with his wife of 45 years, has three children successfully earning livings on their own, and two incredible grandchildren. And he is currently working on a new novel about cyber war and financial terrorism.From Publishers Weekly"Wood (Please Be Ad-Vised: A Legal Reference Guide for the Advertising Executive )delivers an entertaining account of his adventures in media and entertainment law, where, he writes, he had to be tough but fair: 'Maybe to some I was acting like an asshole attorney, but it felt right.' After graduating from NYU law school in 1977, Wood landed a job with a firm that specialized in groundbreaking entertainment cases such as the Monty Python's Flying Circus lawsuit in 1975 against the ABC network after the show's producers argued that the American network 'butchered their work' by putting 'commercial breaks at all the wrong moments.' In representing Earl Wilson Jr. and defending his satirical version of the popular song 'Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy (of Company B)' in his play Let My People Come, Wood writes that the case 'is considered by many to be the pivotal case establishing the principles of a valid parody defense.' Other anecdotes include his involvement in introducing the Belvedere vodka company to the U.S. market in 1998, which begins as a simple legal affair and turns into an international adventure, with Wood surviving a helicopter crash in Poland. The narrative moves at a good pace, and Wood is a straightforward, candid writer ('those who are unhappy about something I wrote, I offer no apology. Feel free to write about me. I have a thick skin'). Wood's memoir is a refreshing look at an unusual legal career