HIS WAY
SPOTLIGHT
FOR EMPLOYMENT LAWYER PERRY SMITH, SONGWRITING IS JUST A HOBBY;
BUT THAT DIDN’T STOP AMERICAN IDOL FROM CALLING BY BETSY GRACA
advocate to judge. “As a lawyer you just
argue one side and you get so adamant.
But as a judge you become this impartial
person,” she says. “You have to be that girl
who’s blindfolded with the justice scales.
“It’s given me insight into the limits of
a person,” she adds. “I think everybody
thinks judges know everything. But that’s
the lawyer’s job. The law is comprised of
millions and millions of laws, but it is a
lawyer’s job to grab that law and argue it
to the judge who might not know the law. I
know … weird, right?”
Chang Rickert, who has also volunteered
at Harriett Buhai Center for Family Law,
began pro bono work in San Francisco at a
domestic violence clinic because she wanted
to expand her horizons beyond her corporate
job. When she moved to LA in 2004, she
opened her own family law practice.
Of course, this is LA.
“I did a couple commercials, and I was
doing some acting for money on the side
while my law firm was building,” she says.
“It was rough the first couple of years and I
was still volunteering because I didn’t have
a lot of paying clients yet. But it was all
worth it—eating the cup of noodles.”
She’s got entertainment clients but
when the media calls they’re looking for
her comments. TV Guide, MTV, Dr. Phil and
Law & Order have rung. Most recently, she
was interviewed on Inside Edition about
Charlie Sheen’s custody battle.
She won’t ditch it all for the bench
anytime soon. “I’m a Type-A, no-nonsense,
speak-my-mind personality, and I think to
be a judge you have to take away some of
that,” she says. “Maybe when I’m 50 and
I’ve calmed down a little.”
In the meantime, she has one request.
“I’m 90 pounds and 5’ 4”,” she says. “All the
[judicial] robes are one-size-fits-all. Get a
small-person robe for me!”
Perry Smith’s stepfather, a part-time
songwriter, had one of those “I was pretty
darn close to getting a big break, but it
never panned out” stories, and, in 2007,
Smith wanted to give him a special birthday
present. So he took a rough, homemade
recording of one of his stepfather’s songs,
sent it off to producer Gary Carter—who had
once been Randy Travis’ music director—
and had it professionally produced. The
result was so pleasing that Smith dusted
off his own electric piano and began writing
his own songs—something he hadn’t done
in 15 years. Within months, his phone rang
and 19 Entertainment, the management for
American Idol winners, was on the other end.
Kid, representing plaintiffs was a better fit.
He left his firm, Payne & Fears—he admits
that his work at the firm sometimes lived up
to the name—and along with partner Doug
Barritt, started Barritt Smith in Irvine.
“I have recovered millions of dollars
for employees and haven’t looked back,”
Smith says. “I tend to have my clients’
cases turn into my cases—meaning I tend
to take them personally.”
Smith says he’s become a better legal
writer because of the songwriting. “There’s
some hook that your whole song should
be focused on. ... In a legal brief, you really
should do the same thing. You really should
write to your theme and really clarify your
main point or points. All of the surrounding
stuff, if it wanders off too far, it’s not going to
be a good, tight piece of writing.”
Smith has signed a few of his country
and rock songs with a Nashville publisher
but doesn’t expect to get rich anytime
soon. “I did not cash my first royalty check,”
he says. “I’m going to frame it. It is for
$145.50—less than half of the hourly rate
courts have awarded me in the last year.”
