Friday, April 11, 2008

Hangin' with Corbin

Some of you remember when I blogged about a year ago about a new club at the U law school called the Jackie Chiles Law Society. It is a club formed to explore how the law is portrayed in popular culture. Last year, for their Year-End Banquet, they got Phil Morris, the actor who played Jackie Chiles on Seinfeld, to come speak. From all reports, it was a spectacular event. This year, they hit another home run, and Corbin Bernsen was the speaker and was named this year's Pop Culture Icon in Residence. Corbin Berson is perhaps most famous for his portrayal of Arnie Becker, the lady-killer family lawyer in LA Law. He has also played a lawyer in JAG and Boston Legal. And, in my favorite of his roles, he played Roger Dorn in Major League (the edited version).

My firm sponsored a table, so I got to go to the banquet this year, and it was a treat. It was quite the event. There was plenty of video and jokes about how lawyers are portrayed in pop culture. One of the crazy professors at they U law school spoke and embarrassed herself and the whole school. But then it was Mr. Corbin Bernsen's turn. He got up and started talking and he didn't stop. He got on a roll and just told the stories that popped into his head. He told us how he got the role of Arnie Becker; he told us about a time on a plane when a lawyer asked him to help him with his case (which he did); he told us about some of his upcoming projects that he's working on. But in between all of these stories, you would get a stream of consciousness of tangent stories, many of which never got finished. He was always funny, and he didn't have much of a filter, so we heard all about an ex wife that he hated, some of his sexual harassment suits, how much he hated one of the TV shows he appeared in for a brief time, and his theory on Rob Lowe's most recent troubles. All in all, it was a great time. Now I need to find some old episodes of LA Law.

8 comments:

Jayme said...

Ian:

Great post!! Who was the embarassing U professor? You can reply by e-mail if needed.

Best,
Jayme

Katie said...

I am glad you had such a good time. I knew it must be highly entertaining when it wasn't over until 10 pm!

Spencer Davis said...

That is awesome. You should have recorded some of it on your iPhone.

3703 said...

I agree, email me the juicy details

Ian said...

If there is an interest, I will relate all juicy details, including details about Corbin and Rob Lowe's sexual harassment problems, at the Root Beer Party. So that's one more thing to be excited about.

tjcool18 said...

I remember that my parents used to watch LA Law religiously along with Knott's Landing and 30 something. I swear this guy's character was killed off when he fell down an elevator shaft tragically. I will have to check with Todd.

Question about the iPhone: Why didn't you wait until June when the new 3G iPhone comes out? Just curious.

3703 said...

Don't answer TJ's question. If all of us waited until the next new edition came along then we would never get anything. THERE IS ALWAYS AN APGRADE 8 MONTHS AWAY. He is just making you feel bad for having something he wants.

Take that.

Ian said...

TJ, Katie's dad's company switched providers, and I needed a phone that would work with AT&T right away.