The Chadbourne Band

Legal and Legal Humor Articles and Music

When I came to work at my law firm, Chadbourne & Parke, I initially assumed that the parody performances I had delivered in my fraternity house and at the Michigan "Law Revue" Show would not be well-received. However, after carefully assessing the office sensibilities, I eventually decided to "test the water," beginning with the 1984 firm Holiday Party. Among the parodies I played that night was "Bill Those Hours" (to the tune of "Jingle Bells"). I dressed up as Santa Claus; fortunately no photographic evidence survives. My debut, however, was very well received.

Over time, interest grew to the point where such entertainment was expected at firm functions. The picture on the left is from the 1985 Summer Outing. I performed "Blue Memo" (about one of the firm's forms of internal memoranda, to the tune of "Blue Suede Shoes") and "At Chadbourne" (to the tune of "On Broadway").

Others -- legal and non-legal staff from all areas of the firm -- asked to join, prompting my formation of the office's first-ever in-house band to perform my rewrites of the "classics." The picture on the right is from the 1987 Summer Outing, where we performed as "The Breach (of Contract) Boys" and "The Chadbournettes." One of the songs we did was "Little Co-Op" (to the tune of "Little Deuce Coupe").

At the 1987 Christmas Party, we did a Bruce Springsteen medley, with me dressed as "The Boss" (see the picture at the left). As evidenced by the lack of lead sheets obstructing the view of my face, I had apparently succeeded in actually learning the words and chords (all three of them) in advance. The songs we performed included "Boring Days" ("Glory Days"). The Band's performance was noted in an article in the now-long-defunct weekly legal magazine, Manhattan Lawyer.

In perhaps a tribute to film noir -- but more likely due to the fact that all I could find were photocopies of photographs, the shots on the right were of the Band's memorable (why it was, I cannot recall) performance at the 1988 Summer Outing. One of the tunes we played was "I'm A Proofreader" (I'm A Believer"). Lyrics to another song, "Bar Exam" ("Barbara Ann"), were thereafter published in Manhattan Lawyer.

After a long hiatus, and following the successful and widely-publicized 1998 release of "The Lawyer's Holiday Humor Album," the firm kindly asked me to reconstitute the Band, which I gladly did for the 1998 Holiday Party. We performed two songs from the Album, and received a very appreciative response from the audience. The pictures below are from that performance. PLAY MP3

To read more of the parody lyrics we have performed over the years, click here.