|
Bob Andelman
Bio
Hotbot
Search
"By Bob Andelman"
Northern
Light Search
"By
Bob Andelman"
Guru.com
Hiring Information
for Bob Andelman
Order
Books
By Bob Andelman
ARTICLES
Latest
Work
Profiles
Retail
First
Person
Murder,
I Wrote
Real
Estate
Tampa
Bay
Meetings
Radio
Business
Sports
BOOKS
Reviews
The Corporate Athlete
(Hardcover)
The Corporate Athlete
(Paperback; Jan. 2001)
The Corporate
Athlete
(Audiotape)
The Corporate Athlete
(Official Web Site)
The Profit Zone
Built From Scratch
(Hardcover)
Built From Scratch
(Official Web Site)
Mean Business
(Paperback)
Mean Business
(Hardcover)
Mean Business
(Audiotape)
Bankers as Brokers
Stadium For Rent
(Paperback)
Stadium For Rent
(Online)
Why Men Watch
Football
Why Men Watch Football
(Online Soon!)
Big Black Spider
With the
Orange Orange Eyes
(A Story for Kids!)
Mr. Media
Archives
The
Latest
1998
1997
1996
1995
1994
More Andelmans
Mimi
Rachel
Photos
Write To
Us!
Bob
Mimi
Rachel
(Since Oct. 7, 1999)
|
|
|
Richard Catalano
"He Keeps the Machine Running"
(Originally published in Pinellas County Review,
November 1994)
By Bob
Andelman
Divorce is a grind, a mountain of heartache,
with no happy endings, just dysfunctional survivors.
And that's just the lawyers.
Richard T. Catalano, one-half of the Clearwater
firm of Clark & Catalano, has handled simple, uncontested
divorce cases as well as bloodbaths since passing the bar in
1985. He's seen an endless parade of adult clients who throw
tantrums like 3-year-olds and who think nothing of spending $500
in legal fees to gain custody of a $50 knick-knack. He's endured
more than his share of conversations that end with "I'm
going to get him/her!"
The emotional strain began showing on Catalano
three years ago. That's when his wife, Shara, convinced him he
needed to broaden his legal horizons. "You seem miserable,"
she said.
She was right.
Knowing Catalano to be a frustrated musician,
Shara suggested they start going out to nightclubs so he could
blend his personal and professional interests. "See which
bands have potential," she said. "Maybe you can represent
them."
Music saved Catalano. He took an interest
in three bay area alternative rock bands, Clang, Men From Earth,
and Edison Shine, eventually being hired by each to perform some
type of legal work. His most enduring relationship, however,
has been with Clang.
"They were what they call in the industry
'undeniable,' " Catalano said. "I started going to
all their shows; I became a Clang groupie. At a music conference,
the leader of the band, Paul Reller, came up to me and said,
'Will you represent us?' I said, 'I thought you'd never ask.'
"
Catalano, a graduate of Stetson University
College of Law, began enjoying the law again. He joined the entertainment
and sports law section of the Florida Bar and became a regular
at its meetings. He bought the four-volume Entertainment Industry
Contracts. Meanwhile, the young attorney immersed himself
in the local music culture.
Catalano, having become a band intimate -
the "Fifth Clanger" - wasn't satisfied with the speed
of Clang's ascent to stardom. he started his own record label,
Rump Roast Records, and issued Clang's 20-song LP, Pol Pot
Pie, on 3,000 CDs and 1,000 cassettes. Among the collected
chestnuts are original songs including: "Chump Funk,"
"Triple Homicide," "Hooray for Hollywood,"
"Dog Man" - about a triple murder in Rochester, N.Y.
- and "Shroud of Urine," the last a musical report
on the contraceptive device RU-486. There's also a cover of Led
Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love." Billboard called
Pol Pot Pie "dazzling."
"He's definitely part of the team,"
said Paul Reller, lead singer and guitarist for Clang. (Reller
"daylights" as a professor of composition and director
of the electronic music studio at the University of South Florida
in Tampa.) "He's a great guy, real enthusiastic about music.
And lucky for us, he has some affinity for our music. He keeps
the machine running; he's like the central nervous system for
the business aspect of the band. He contributes probably more
than is apparent."
There's no indication from the walls in Catalano's
office or his desk that his career interests vary so much away
from divorce proceedings. The only clue is the CD/cassette boombox
behind him, a Clang CD already queued up. Hidden away in a drawer
is his collection of CD and cassettes, most produced by local
musicians. And if one even hints at interest, Catalano can instantly
provide a band bio with newspaper clips, performance reviews
and mentions of its many awards.
"This is not your normal garage band,"
Catalano said. "I wouldn't be involved with them if they
were. Unless they were great."
Catalano won't say how much cash he's invested
in the band except to say "it's been a very expensive lesson."
He spends an average of 20 percent of the business week on entertainment-related
work, although it doesn't come close to that percentage of his
billings. The work includes writing exclusive recording agreements
for small record labels, band member partnership agreements,
incorporation and d/b/a papers, and product contracts for record
producers. "I get their legal house in order," he said.
"Most bands I meet haven't even gotten their fictitious
names registered."
So far, he still farms out most copyright
and trademark work. It's an uphill struggle convincing some bands
they even need to copyright their original material and register
it with the Library of Congress.
These are the general duties he accepts for
client bands. For Clang, he goes a step further, shopping their
CD around to major labels in New York and Los Angeles, getting
their music heard by people who can do Clang the most good. (In
mid-September, the quartet recorded big band tunes behind Tiny
Tim for a CD to be released in early 1995.)
Catalano won't reveal the nature of his financial
relationship with the band except to confirm he will recoup his
investment in Pol Pot Pie if the band's fortunes rise.
"It's a gamble," Catalano said. "It was a long-shot
that I was willing to take because I believe in the band. If
Clang takes off, there could be a lot more music on Rump Roast
Records."
Besides his investment, Catalano's very career
could change dramatically if Clang hits the big time. He very
much wants to expand the entertainment law portion of his business
because divorce, while lucrative, is eating him up inside. His
partner, Gregory D. Clark, is glad to see Catalano find some
distraction from his regular practice.
"This is something he really enjoys,"
Clark said. "And he's got the dynamic personality for it."
Clark, a real estate transaction attorney who described himself
as "slow and cautious," said Catalano is anything but.
"Richard is just the opposite, the person who gets things
done. He's one to push for closure on things. It's a concept
more lawyers should adopt."
Catalano accepts divorce clients to pay the
bills but takes entertainment work for fun. "Realistically,
entertainment will only supplement a law practice because musicians
never have any money," he said. "They live a good lifestyle
because they gig left and right, but they get paid in cash. The
only ones who make any money are the ones who play weddings.
The ones who play The Ritz or Gasoline Alley, they make $100,
$300 a night. They're not in it for the money. They have stars
in their eyes."
Of course, so does Catalano, the second of
three sons born to retired Defense Department attorney Joseph
J. Catalano. The elder Catalano was the greatest influence in
his middle child's decision to become a lawyer. "He's the
smartest man I've ever known," Catalano says. "He said,
'I have a lifetime of experiences. Where you're going, I've been.'
He always warned me the law was a paper chase. A paper nightmare.
And he was right. As usual."
Catalano, a 33-year-old Bronx native who speaks
with great speed and animation when the subject moves him, is
known in family circles as a peacemaker, the great negotiator.
"I would always rise to the defense of one brother or friend,"
he recalled. His mother, Victoria, teased him about it: "Who
do you think you are, the public defender?" The nickname
- The Public Defender - stuck.
"He never used to take sides in arguments,"
said Rich's older brother, John Catalano, a certified public
account with Broad & Walls Asset Management in St. Petersburg.
"We grew up in New York City playing hardcore, nitty-gritty
baseball and football with another family, the LoBiancos. We
would knock each other around. Fights, inevitably, would occur.
Rich would always be the problem-solver, not the aggressor. He
would always try to work out a peaceful resolution."
You can take the boy out of New York but you
can't take the New Yawker out of the boy, apparently,
said Catalano's long-time friend and Stetson classmate, Jeff
Cosnow, a Palm Harbor attorney. "Rich is from the Bronx
and listening to him talk about it is like somebody bragging
about the old country. It's like an ethnic identity for him,"
Cosnow joked.
Another friend, Tampa real estate attorney
E.J. Richardson, said that Catalano uses Big Apple-ese to his
advantage. "He's very forthright," Richardson said.
"Always lets you know where you stand. He doesn't mince
words and he doesn't waste a lot of time."
"Growing up, I always thought it would
be fun to be a lawyer," Catalano said. But after being hit
by shrapnel for nine years in the divorce war trenches, he's
had second thoughts. "Law wasn't what I thought it would
be. I thought, when I started practicing, that law was what was
in the law books. What I found out was law was whatever the particular
judge says when you're in front of him."
The rules appear especially grey around the
edges of divorce, where the cases have already been emotionally
draining even before they ever reach court.
"Coming from as strong a family as Richard
does," Richardson said, "it wears him out seeing so
many people who don't take their relationships as seriously as
you do. The fact that Richard would tire of it shows he's a human
being, not a machine."
"I'm a firm believer: Everybody loses
in divorce," Catalano said. "A lot of people, in a
divorce, don't want a fair distribution and fair settlement.
They want to punish. I am not the person for them. I had a case
that went on for about two years! We settled it on the eve of
trial. I felt good; these people needed to get on with their
lives. They channeled all their energy and money into the divorce
when they had three kids who needed their attention. When it
was over, I was very happy for them, but especially for their
kids.
"There's a lot of coping involved,"
he said. "I cope through my family. I'm a happily married
man: I love my wife and I have an angel for a son. That's how
I cope with it."
Probably the last career Catalano will want
for his own son, Neal - born on Jan. 8 of this year - will be
as a lawyer. If anything, he hopes to see Neal in the music biz.
"One day," Catalano dreams, "he'll take over the
helm of Rump Roast Records from me."
BAY LAWYER FILE
Name: Richard T. Catalano
Title: Partner,
Clark & Catalano
Birthplace/date:
Bronx, N.Y., Dec. 26, 1960
Marital Status:
Married
Children: Neal,
9 months
Pre-Law: Father,
Joseph J., was a contracting officer/attorney for the Defense
Department in Manhattan; Mother, Victoria H., was a homemaker.
"She was always there." Moved to St. Petersburg when
Catalano was 13; he's a 1978 graduate of Lakewood High School.
First Law Job:
Clerk for Benson & Schwartzberg, St. Petersburg, 1984
Subsequent Career:
Joined Benson & Schwartzberg after passing the bar in '85;
Started own practice, April 15, 1987; Formed Clark & Catalano
with Greg Clark in June 1992
Biggest Victory:
"Putting out Pol Pot Pie with Clang. Actually getting
an album out is more difficult than any lawyer can think."
Biggest Disappointment: "The realities of practicing law."
Lawyers Most Admired:
"My father, Joseph J. Catalano. And my partner, Greg Clark,
is the best lawyer I know."
Favorite Law-related Book: . . . And Justice For All
Favorite Band:
The Beatles, Clang
end
©2000,
All rights reserved. No portion may be reproduced without the
express written permission of the author.
Free Andelmania E-Newsletter!
Want to hear the latest about the Andelmans? Join
our mailing list!
You'll get updates about the family and professional news, too.
Enter your email address below, then click the 'Join List' button:
|