Leonard Maizlish Described by reference author Joel Engel as Roddenberry ' s " point man and proxy " , Leonard Murray Maizlish had been the life - long attorney of Gene Roddenberry . Though Maizlish had been a lurking background presence throughout the entire " Star Trek " production history , he fully emerged into the open when Roddenberry , upon being contracted for " The Next Generation " , brought him along to serve " on staff " and was given his own personal office on the studio lot in early 1987 , even though he had no official production function or any formal say in the production whatsoever . Roddenberry , still smarting over the fact that he had been removed by the studio from creative control over the five years earlier , was determined to not let this happen again , and reasoned that he had a better chance of accomplishing this if he had his attorney at hand at all times during the production . ( " " , p . 238 ) " " Leonard was carrying the " Wrath of Gene " for all these years , " " John Pike further clarified in the documentary , " " because Gene felt he had gotten screwed on the " Original Series " , " " which , actually , had not been entirely unjustified . This time around however , and much to the chagrin of the studio ( as evidenced by Pike ' s above - quoted remark ) , Maizlish managed to hammer out a very advantageous deal for his client . While the subsequent events were discussed in detail in " " , it was David Gerrold who had already for nearly a decade vocally recounted the events in numerous publications and at several " Star Trek " conventions , in no uncertain terms , be they in writing and / or speech . Summarizing , Gerrold had explained , " " Gene ' s lawyer ( Leonard Maizlish ) was making it impossible for anybody to do any real work . He was rewriting scripts . He was committing violations . People were very unhappy . It was one of the worst working environments I ' d ever been in . So when my contract came up for renewal , I asked Gene not to [ renew it ] . " " Elaborating that Maizlish went even as far as surreptitiously rifling through the desks of writers in search of scripts he could illegally redact ( Rick Berman , well acquainted with Roddenberry ' s handwriting , has recalled , " " Leonard Maizlish , Gene ' s lawyer , would hand me a script saying these were Gene notes . I ' m pretty sure they were Leonard ' s notes . " " ) , Gerrold has labeled Maizlish a " " ( . . . ) scumbag of a Human being . I cannot say enough things – he was a truly evil Human being . " " Maizlish was at the start of the second season banned from the the studio lot , but he sneaked back in the evenings to continue his illicit practices . Being for nearly a decade virtually the sole , highly critical voice on these events , has made some of the more purist elements of " Star Trek " fandom skeptical of Gerrold ' s sincerity on several internet blogs , among others that of and TrekBBS . com , interpreting these as being personally motivated , some of them even confusing them with Gerrold harboring resentment against Roddenberry himself . Gerrold had indeed had some issues with Roddenberry , stemming from the " Original Series " days , but these had since then long been resolved . But they were right in their assessment that there was also a personal element involved , which stemmed from Gerrold ' s script - draft for the ultimately unrealized episode " Blood and Fire " , an allegory on AIDS , featuring gay characters . Much to the dismay of the gay community , " Star Trek " had until then shied away from gay issues ( in all honesty , mirroring the prevalent attitude towards gay issues in American society at the time ) , something Gerrold tended to redress with this episode , with the implicit backing of Roddenberry according to Gerrold , " " So now Gene and I appeared at a " Star Trek " convention in November of 1986 and somebody asked " will there be gay people aboard the " Enterprise " ? " And Gene – to give him credit for knowing the right thing to say at the right time – said " yes , it is time , we should show gay people on board the " Enterprise " . " This got a lot of applause . " " Yet , Roddenberry backtracked on his promise , likely persuaded to do so by the studio in the arguable guise of " raging homophobe " Rick Berman , as per Gerrold . Roddenberry however , had a well - known character flaw of being absolutely unable to be the bearer of bad news and dispatched Maizlish to deliver the decision to Gerrold . This Maizlish did in a particularly vulgar manner , as recounted by Gerrold , " " The last time I saw [ Maizlish ] I was helping Herb Wright " [ remark : who had tried to tone down the script into the equally unrealized " Blood and Ice " variant , under strict instructions from Maizlish not to let Gerrold work on the script , only to become another victim of Maizlish ] " pack up his office . The lawyer came to make sure we weren ' t stealing anything . To my face , he called me " an AIDS - infected cocksucker . A fucking faggot " . " " ( ; " " , p . 249 ) It was not the only time that Maizlish spoke in harsh terms to or of Gerrold , and the latter , shortly after he had left the production , decided to fight fire with fire by seeking out legal counsel of his own , " " Later , I found out that Maizlish was telling people what a troublemaker I was , that I ' d been fired because I was mentally ill , that I never did anything useful for the show – real character assassination of the worst sort . So my lawyer called him up and said , " You keep talking and we ' re going to own your car , your house , your dog , etc . " , and that shut him up real fast . Maizlish was a disgraceful man . Fortunately , my lawyer was a Hollywood heavyweight , and when he said , " Hmmm , " that was a very expensive " Hmmm , " especially to the target . " " Maizlish ' s remarks to and of Gerrold were indicative of a very boorish nature , which was to an extent corroborated by author Engel , when describing Maizlish ' s presence on the production , " " [ Maizlish had ] become Roddenberry ' s point man and proxy , often writing memos on scripts and outlines , and sitting in on most story meetings , often without Roddenberry . He once fell asleep during a casting session , snoring loudly as an actress auditioned for her part . Sometimes he attempted to rewrite scripts . He worked on Michael Michaelian ' s , Roddenberry admitted to [ Robert ] Lewin " [ remark : who incidentally , was hired by Maizlish personally without studio consent , as Hurley was – which however , backfired , as Roddenberry himself was to clash violently with Hurley later on – and both promoted by him above the " Original Series " writing staff ] " , " just to help my thinking on it . " Inasmuch as Maizlish was a lawyer , not a writer or producer – or even on staff in any official capacity – this was a contravention of Writers Guild rules . " " ( " " , p . 238 ) The uncouth act of falling asleep during a casting session was as a matter of fact witnessed by Producer Robert Justman , and marked the only time that he actually had words with Roddenberry , with whom he had otherwise a warm and close personal relationship , hastening his decision to leave the production , " " One day , I drove over to his house after Leonard Maizlish fell asleep in the middle of a casting session , right in full view of the actor who was reading for us . I was furious , and stopped the casting session , jumped in my car and rode over to Gene ' s house and screamed at him . It wasn ' t long after that I decided , " Wait a second , I can ' t let this happen ! " I knew the show was going to be successful , it was a terrific show , but I was lucky that I didn ' t have to remain at work there . I gave away a lot of money by not coming back , but I think I also kept some hold of what little sanity remains to me , and physically , it was my salvation . I just decided to be happier and have less . " " ( " Star Trek Magazine Special 2014 " , p . 20 ) Yet , what many Gerrold detractors had overlooked however , was that Justman himself had already confirmed Maizlish ' s detrimental influence to a large extent previously , in his 1996 reference book " " , having called his creative meddling " destructive " and also being the prime responsible agent for the earliest departure of one of the most important production staffers , Post - production Producer Edward K . Milkis , which however , opened up the way for Rick Berman and , more specifically , Peter Lauritson . ( 1997 , pp . 433 - 434 ) Just prior to the publication of the book Justman had already delved in somewhat more detail in a magazine interview , " Well , Maizlish made my life hell . My deal was for a year with a year ' s pick - up . but by the time I was halfway through the first season . I knew I didn ' t want to do a second season . I spent half my days being angry at Gene ' s lawyer . I felt I could have stayed , but with him riding shotgun , filling in for Gene , or so he thought . I felt that I didn ' t need that kind of grief . He was getting in my way and causing me big problems . My blood pressure rose suddenly – I ' ve always had a great heart – and I decided I didn ' t want to do it anymore . " So , well before the end of the season , I had my agent go up and say , " " Hey , let him out [ of his contract ] . " " I made the offer where I would finish the season ' s last eight shows on more of a consultant basis , where I would just do the casting and story and editing . And all the other stuff would be left to someone else – Rick Berman and David Livingston . And I voluntarily took a cut in pay , half of what I was making . We finished out the season , the last eight shows , I finished my editing chores on them and that was it . " ( . . . ) By that time , David was gone from the show , as was Dorothy , and they were very angry . I don ' t know what the heck went on between David and Gene and Dorothy and Gene , but it was evidently something . Other people had since come and gone , too . What was going on ? I don ' t know . All I know is there was a lot of backbiting and crazy politicking going on over there ; but very little of it touched me . " Long before I left the show , Leonard Maizlish came to me and said , " " I want you to know , Bob " " – this is practically an exact quote – " " that Gene and I appreciate all you ' ve done creatively for " Star Trek : The Next Generation " , and we ' re going to see to it that you get a small piece of the show . " " I said , " " Oh , great ! " " And he said , " " However , it ' ll have to wait until Eileen Roddenberry ' s lawsuit [ regarding how much eventual " Trek " profit was owed to her under the couple ' s divorce ] is over , to see exactly what the piece would be . " " Well , as far as I know , the lawsuit is still continuing , Maizlish died some years after that and I ' m still waiting for that piece . Know what ? I don ' t think I ' m going to get it ! " ( " " , issue 228 , pp . 58 - 59 ) Staunch Roddenberry supporter Dorothy Fontana had remained silent throughout the years , on what exactly transpired during this period in time , until " Chaos on the Bridge " , in which she revealed that she caught Maizlish red - handed one evening in the act of rifling through her office . " " Nobody liked him " " , she stated , immediately adding , " " In particular , I didn ' t like him . " " Richard Arnold added on the same occasion , " " I think he thought he was speaking with Gene ' s voice , but I think Gene never heard the way he spoke to other people . Gene had these wonderful relationships with people who worked with him on the " Original Series " , like Dorothy Fontana , and Leonard was horrible to Dorothy . " " Whether or not Maizlish had his ailing client ' s interests truly at heart , by over - zealously playing upon his client ' s increasing paranoia of being removed from creative control , he " had " done him a great disfavor as the departure of the " Original Series " veterans had a profound effect on Roddenberry according to Gerrold , " " Gene was crying because all of his friends were gone . It was because Maizlish chased them away . " " It confirmed Arnold ' s assessment that the most vicious clashes had been with Maizlish , not with Roddenberry in person . Considering the deep emotional attachment Roddenberry had for his " Original Series " friends , who were the very first staffers he had brought in to form the original production nucleus for " The Next Generation " in October 1986 , has made Maizlish ' s attitude towards Gerrold , Fontana , Justman , and Milkis all the more inexplicable . The now isolated and friendless Roddenberry was subsequently left dangerously exposed to studio politics at which he was notoriously inept . Maizlish was , after another series of clashes with the subsequent writing staff , definitively removed from the production at the end of the second season , as Roddenberry was from creative control due to his failing health . " " Gene didn ' t like Rick " [ Berman ] " , at all . But Rick was installed on the show by the studio as a way to keep a control on the show . . . to keep the budgets in line , make sure that the scripts were done . Ultimately , Berman ended up in control rather than Maizlish because Berman played the politics of the studio more effectively " , " Gerrold concluded . It was not only the " Next Generation " staff Maizlish managed to antagonize to no end , even movie director Nicholas Meyer had his blood pressure raised by Maizlish when he was summoned to a meeting with Roddenberry over perceived racism exhibited in ( even though Roddenberry still had no creative say in that movie as well , and which went into pre - production during " The Next Generation " s third season ) in regard to the Klingon s . A very charged , as Meyer was by no means a man to be outdone by the likes of Maizlish , meeting followed , which Meyer in later years came to regret , " " His guys were lined up on one side of the room , and my guys were lined up on the other side of the room , and this was not a meeting in which I felt I ' d behaved very well , very diplomatically . I came out of it feeling not very good , and I ' ve not felt good about it ever since . He was not well " [ remark : an ailing Roddenberry would indeed pass away only a short time later ] " , and maybe there were more tactful ways of dealing with it , because at the end of the day , I was going to go out and make the movie . I didn ' t have to take him on . Not my finest hour . " " On 22 October 1991 , Roddenberry was present at the avant - premiere screening of the nearly finished " The Undiscovered Country " movie , giving the assembly a thumbs up when he was wheeled back to his office . True to form , once there he immediately instructed Maizlish to start legal actions against Leonard Nimoy and Nicholas Meyer at once , to have fifteen minutes of the more militaristic aspects cut from the movie . Two days later , his client was dead , and the " Star Trek " production staff were spared being reintroduced to Maizlish ' antics , whom they only two years earlier had managed to boot out . ( " Star Trek Movie Memories " , 1995 , p . 394 ) Still , for all the vilification , it was not entirely all bad , what Maizlish had brought to the table . Rick Berman has credited him with suggesting actor John de Lancie for the part of Q , who went on to become one of the most popular recurrent characters on " The Next Generation " , in no small measure due to the way de Lancie portrayed his character . ( " " , 2003 , p . 25 ) Concurrently , it was Maizlish who convinced Roddenberry to keep the name Data , as was begrudgingly conceded by Gerrold , and who himself had opposed the name . And even his illegitimate hiring of Maurice Hurley , the detrimental effect it had on Roddenberry notwithstanding , eventually resulted in the acclaimed episode , introducing the hugely popular villains , the Borg . Loathed , reviled and universally held responsible for the departure of all " Original Series " veterans , " Chaos on the Bridge " marked the first time that both Justman ' s and Gerrold ' s accounts of Maizlish ' s machinations were corroborated by a wider range of former " The Next Generation " production staffers , ranging from studio executive , through producers , to writing staff . Hailing from the East Coast , Leonard Maizlish started his life - long association with Gene Roddenberry when the latter incorporated his production company Norway Corporation , Inc . on , through which Roddenberry from here on end handled his business dealings with the motion picture industry . Maizlish was hired to look after the legal aspects of Roddenberry ' s dealings and his presence was already felt during the production of the " Original Series " , as Roddenberry habitually forwarded a copy of internal studio memos to him , when communicating with the upper echelons of the studio and / or network . ( " " ; " " ) Actually , the first recorded " victim " of Roddenberry ' s and Maizlish ' s legal machinations , fell already during the production of the second season of the series . Finding himself on the receiving end was series ' theme composer Alexander " Sandy " Courage . As related by Herb Solow , " " When Sandy Courage was given his contract to write the " Star Trek " music , he was unaware of a two - sentence clause toward the end of the agreement . Thinking it was more of the usual boilerplate , Sandy signed the agreement without reading it fully . The clause , inserted by Gene ' s attorney , Leonard Maizlish , gave Gene the right to write lyrics to Courage ' s theme " [ remark : which he did , but which have never been featured for the very simple reason that they were bad , as Roddenberry had no musical skills whatsoever ] " . Almost two years later , after NBC put " Star Trek " on its schedule , Sandy received a call from Leonard Maizlish : " " Listen , from now on we will be collecting one - half of your royalties . " " Sandy , confused as to how this could happen , spoke to Desilu Music Department head Wilbur Hatch and Desilu attorney Ed Perlstein . " " They told me there was nothing that could be done , legally , " " said Sandy , and when he questioned Roddenberry , Gene explained , " " Hey , I have to get some money somewhere . I ' m sure not going to get it out of the profits of " Star Trek " . " " " " A livid Courage left the production immediately , never to return save for two third season episode scores as a courtesy to Justman . In his twilight years however , Courage , mellowed over the years , has put the blame squarely on Maizlish ' s shoulders , " " There wasn ' t any rift , really , with Gene . What happened with Gene was a I got a phone call once . . . it was Gene ' s lawyer , [ Leonard ] Maizlish . He said , " I ' m calling you to tell you that since you signed a piece of paper back there saying that if Gene ever wrote a lyric to your theme that he would split your royalties on the theme . " Gene and I weren ’ t enemies in any sort of way . It was just one of those things . . . I think it was Maizlish , probably , who put him up to doing it that way , and it ' s a shame , because actually if he ' d written a decent lyric we could have both made more money . " " The duo had concurrently tried to do something similar with Leonard Nimoy ' s first vinyl album recording , " Mr . Spock ' s Music From Outer Space " , which marked the beginning of the descent into animosity of the relationship , which had started amicably enough at the beginning of the series , between Roddenberry and Nimoy . ( " " , 1997 , p . 185 ) Being typified as a " scumbag " by Gerrold was not entirely unfounded , as Maizlish was already in 1964 under investigation by the Securities And Exchange Commission ( SEC ) for " ( . . . ) filing contained material misrepresentations and omissions which he reasonably should have known were false and misleading concerning interim loans and losses affecting the financial condition of the company " [ remark : Casa Electronics Corporation ] " and the use of proceeds from the public offering . " Sensing the writings on the wall , Maizlish recused himself on 23 November 1964 , effectively disbarring himself from litigating before the SEC , in order to avoid legal punitive measures . Nevertheless , he was readmitted to litigate before the SEC on 10 June 1965 . Maizlish played an equally dubious legal role when he agreed in 1967 to become party to the deception surrounding the foundation of Lincoln Enterprises , the " Star Trek " memorabilia sales company of Roddenberry and his soon - to - be wife Majel Barrett . Roddenberry wanted to hide his legal footprints in order to obscure the questionable origins of some of his early production - used " Star Trek " merchandise , as well as to hide the proceeds from these sales from his then still - wife , Eileen . By transferring legal title to his attorney ( who , when legally registering the company , had somehow managed to antedate the company ' s establishing date to 6 April 1962 – hence Barrett ' s below - mentioned " has been in existence for probably almost a hundred years " remark – , in the process also changing the original , short - lived company name " Star Trek Enterprises " into the new one ) , Roddenberry had thrown up a smokescreen if the studio ever decided to pursue the matter legally , which however , they never did . Barrett - Roddenberry herself had actually admitted to this state of affairs , albeit somewhat circumferentially , when she later elaborated in a 1993 , with contradictory half - truths interlaced , interview , " " Lincoln has been in existence for probably almost a hundred years . It was originally Lincoln Publishing and it was owned by another gentleman many , many years before . His attorney was Leonard Maislich " [ sic . ] " . For some reason or another he gave the incorporation to Leonard . I don ' t know how it basically happened , but it really belonged to Leonard Maislich until he gave it to me in the early eighties . It [ Lincoln ] was merely set up for Gene to handle fan mail for " Star Trek " . " " ( " Strange New Worlds " magazine , issue 10 , Oct / Nov 1993 ) Unsurprisingly perhaps , and not entirely unjustified as the original Roddenberry couple was still legally married at the time of the incorporation of Lincoln Enterprises , Eileen found out later , and sued all involved parties for damages , resulting in that Maizlish was this time actually found guilty of " conspiracy to commit fraud " for his part in the deception , though it assessed no punitive damages against him . Incidentally , an unintended victim of Maizlish became Roddenberry ' s life - long accountant Mort Kessler , who had not been involved with the original deception , as he only became much later employed as such by Roddenberry . However , he became implicated when he in good faith attached his name to the obligatory registration renewals , and he therefore decided to settle out - of - court with Eileen . It was for this reason that Maizlish has sometimes been referred to as Roddenberry ' s " business partner " in various reference works , among others by Justman in his book , " Inside Star Trek : The Real Story " . After the " Original Series " had been canceled , Maizlish became the legal keeper of the " Roddenberry myth " , which his client had began to spin around his person , already during the third season of the " Original Series " . To this end , every single piece of copy or film , dealing with Roddenberry and intended for publication be it in print or on film , had to go through Maizlish ' s office ( located at 9255 W Sunset Blvd Los Angeles and heading a staff of two at the time ) , to be signed off on by him personally . These even included , the pieces written or edited by Roddenberry ' s personal assistant , Susan Sackett , who had faithfully and unwaveringly stood by her employer for decades . And indeed , it turned out that dealing with Maizlish had been a heavy burden for Sackett as well , as she has related in her 2002 book , " " , having called him an " unsavory character " in " Chaos on the Bridge " . As already touched upon by Robert Justman above , Maizlish had , aside from having presided over all Roddenberry ' s studio contract negotiations , also represented him during his original , bitter divorce proceedings from his first wife , Eileen , as well as all the subsequent , incessant alimony hearings which harassed Roddenberry until his dying day . Shortly after Roddenberry ' s death , Maizlish himself was struck with physical infirmity , and he survived his most famous client by only three years . ( " " , 1997 , p . 442 )