Wolves are doing these days. Enter a host of non-profit legal organizations that make it their business to protect local artists from getting the shaft. Once a wronged artist has established legal representation in their corner, shady characters often change their tune, and most cases are quickly settled with the help of a mediator. Totaro acknowledges that motivations vary widely among WALA's stable of 350 volunteers. Many work for firms that require their lawyers to perform pro bono work.
Firms looking to break into the entertainment field sometimes use it as a low-key marketing tool.
And sometimes, Totaro says, lawyers are simply desperate for interesting work that allows them to escape the countless hours they spend wading through Washington's never-ending reserve of bureaucratic paper. But even if volunteers aren't always motivated by pure altruism, plenty go well above the call of duty. And in one of their higher-profile cases, WALA went out of their way for two street musicians who were arrested, fined and stripped of their instruments for playing outside of a subway station in 1993. Things looked bleak for the would-be musicians when they lost their first case. But Ron Dove, their attorney, appealed.