Lawyers trade courts for chords

The name changed almost weekly.

Foster Love and the Rhythm Method. The Curlers. The Hanging Chads.

Finally, the bandmembers settled on The Big Lubersky, a nod to one of the founding partners of their law firm who didn't seem to mind.

They turned a copy room across from the firm's downtown Seattle office into a practice room, and started meeting regularly. For a while, they were just fooling around, doing cover songs, talking about Dead shows they had been to and remembering their lives before torts and briefs and when some of them didn't wear underwear at all.

But then they found other bands like theirs and a purpose: kids who don't have the music education they did; nothing to spur them to play an instrument and dream big rock 'n' roll — or jazz, or blues or classical — dreams.

So goes the story behind Lawyerpalooza, which will pit six bands formed in Seattle law firms against each other, a sort of "battle of the bands" for barristers (www.lawyerpalooza.com).

The music starts at 6:30 p.m. Monday in the Spanish Ballroom of the Four Seasons Hotel, which donated the space.

The money raised ($15 in advance, $20 at the door) will fund music programs at two high-need elementary schools: Olympic Hills in North Seattle and Pathfinder Alternative in West Seattle.

It's a welcome solution to the Seattle School District's $34 million financial crisis. Instead of arguing who is liable, the firms are tuning up, and their colleagues showing up: More than 300 tickets have been sold already.

Olympic Hills has 95 percent participation in its fourth- and fifth-grade music program, even though more than half its families are at or below the federal poverty level, according to Mike Nesteroff, a member of The Big Lubersky, and a commercial litigator with Lane Powell Spears Lubersky.

The school used to get about $17,000 a year for music, he said. This year it got $2,500 and will get nothing next year.

Pathfinder can't afford to pay a music teacher for more than half a day, said Nesteroff, who plays guitar.

But the chance to see buttoned-down lawyers trying to be rock stars might bring in some needed cash.

"All of us were beneficiaries of school music programs when we were young," said Mark Asplund, 42, an environmental lawyer with the same firm.

Said colleague Doug Smith: "For a lot of kids, the music program is why they're still in school."

But Lawyerpalooza will also put a compassionate face on the legal community and put some creative energy into an occasionally mind-numbing profession.

"We're raising money for the schools," Asplund said. "But we're also reigniting, for the attorneys, the best part of who they are."

And perhaps, the worst.

"There's some smacking going on," said David Huber, 49, sole practitioner and The Big Lubersky's lead singer. "This is lawyers in competition."

That said, what will they be wearing? Black T-shirts? Plaid?

"Armani."

Nicole Brodeur's column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Reach her at 206-464-2334 or at nbrodeur@seattletimes.com. More columns at www.seattletimes.com/columnists

She sang in Alan Kramer's band.