TRANSCRIPT:
Paul Edelstein:
Hello, welcome to Pulling Back the Legal Curtain. I am your host, Paul Edelstein. I’ll have my partner, Glenn Faegenburg, with me most of the time.
And this podcast is for all of you out there who have ever read about a court case, seen a court case, been involved in a court case, went to court, thought about court, and wondered, “What the hell is going on in courts?” It seems like every day we have these kind of questions that get asked them.
So on this podcast, we will pull back the curtain on the mystery that sometimes surrounds the court and what happens there. And hopefully give you some answers. Some interesting, some humorous, some surprising. Stick with us on Pulling Back the Legal Curtain.
All right, I’m here today with Sharieff. Sharieff, C. He doesn’t want to use his last name. That’s funny.
Why don’t you want to use your last name? I’m just curious.
Sharieff:
It’s no real reason. It’s just to keep the mystique, I guess.
Paul Edelstein:
All right. I think maybe it’s because there’s somebody out there looking for you. I don’t know. [inaudible 00:01:18]. Nevertheless, just so people who are listening, or watching… So much better to watch by the way. Whatever seven people are actually following my podcast should really see the video because you’re a good-looking dude.
Sharieff:
Thank you. Thank you.
Paul Edelstein:
Yeah. So that would be good. But just so people know who you are. Right.
So, Sharieff, you’re this firm’s head clerk. You’ve been working for this firm since you were, what, like seven years old?
Sharieff:
It feels like it. Yeah. I’ve been there for quite a while. Quite a while.
Paul Edelstein:
How many years you been here?
Sharieff:
I’ve been working here since 2008, maybe. Maybe ’08. ’08 or ’10. I think it might be 2008. 2008.
Paul Edelstein:
I don’t think it’s 20… I think you’ve been here longer than that.
Sharieff:
Was 2008.
Paul Edelstein:
And half your life you’ve been working with us?
Sharieff:
Yeah. Yes. Exactly.
Paul Edelstein:
That’s why you’re not like a clerk, you’re like my little brother. You know what I mean?
Sharieff:
Yeah. I appreciate that. Yeah. Yeah.
Paul Edelstein:
There’s no question.
So your job as a clerk… Maybe we should talk about that first. I was the clerk, I think before you. I think you talked-
Sharieff:
I know. You told me. You told me. We shared those war stories before.
Paul Edelstein:
Is it exactly right? I did exactly what you did. And you know what? I got to tell you something, Sharieff. First of all, you know I think you should just be a lawyer. You know all this stuff anyway. You’ve been watching it for so long, right?
Sharieff:
Quite a few people tell me, “Why don’t you just go to law school?” Or, “Why don’t you just suck it up?” And maybe, who knows what the future holds? I really can’t answer that question.
I like law. I do. But like you and Arthur and Glenn, you guys, that’s in your heart. That’s what you guys do. You breathe it, you eat it, you sleep it. You know what I mean? You wake up thinking about it. I can’t have that on my brain all day.
And then you have to constantly still keep yourself knowing what’s the new laws? You got to constantly keep learning. It’s always learning. You know what I mean?
Paul Edelstein:
Yeah.
Sharieff:
[inaudible 00:03:22].
Paul Edelstein:
Wait, what do you got on your brain all day long? It’s just all hip hop. That’s it? All music? Is that what it is?
Sharieff:
Yeah, something like that. Something like that. Something like that.
Paul Edelstein:
That’s funny because obviously I’m older than you. So when I was 17, that’s probably about when you started working here. That’s when Life After Death came out.
Sharieff:
Ah, that’s funny.
Paul Edelstein:
So everybody makes fun of me, laughs at me, as a 55-year-old white guy, walking around [inaudible 00:03:56] jacket and thinking I’m cool, whatever. But I’m like, “Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. Hip hop started, I was there.”
Sharieff:
Right. Right.
Paul Edelstein:
“So don’t tell me I don’t know what I’m talking about.”
Now, I don’t get that kind of disrespect here in my office from you. And I think that’s legit. It’s not just because you work with me. I get respect because I earn it.
Sharieff:
Your hip hop card, we’ve been out in a few places in the nightlife. Your hip hop card is definitely top-tier. It’s there.
Paul Edelstein:
Yo. Now that’s it. I’m stopping the freaking podcast right now. Flip that. That’s all I need.
Sharieff:
That’s all I need.
Paul Edelstein:
That’s what I brought you on here for, man. I just wanted to get in my hip hop… I want my freaking hip hop respect card stamp because I get it nowhere. My kids think it’s a joke. They’re laughing.
Sharieff:
That’s funny. You know what you got to? You got to just wake up one Saturday morning and just blast to some Biggie Smalls and they’ll be like, “What the? Who’s playing this?” And then they’ll be surprised. Then they’ll get it. Then they’ll get it.
Paul Edelstein:
It’s funny. I wasn’t planning on talking into hip hop, but why not? We should be talking about that. Because I’m going to tell you, now you just reminded me of something. So having hip hop credibility, street cred or whatever, or whatever it is that I bring to the table as a white guy in a suit, but underneath, I got some flavor. You’re giving me that, right?
Sharieff:
Yeah. Yeah.
Paul Edelstein:
So I think that’s important. But I never realized how important that would be until I started trying cases. Because people could smell that out on you? They know.
Sharieff:
Wait, hold on. I think I know where you going with this. And that’s because as cliche as it sounds, hip hop is really universal. You know what I mean? And not only do I listen to music, obviously, but you know that I also record music. I do things like that on the side. So the amount of people that knows hip hop across the world is outstanding. You wouldn’t even believe it. I have friends in Japan. I literally have friends in Japan who listen to hardcore hip hop. They know more hardcore hit records than me. I’m talking old school, Wu-Tang, ODB, M.O.P, like old school stuff.
If this where you were going, and the reason that most people can relate to you is because they get it. You know what I mean? That’s the easy language. That’s the easy way to start a conversation. “Who’s your favorite rapper?” That’s so easy. Universal language.
Paul Edelstein:
Listen, there’s no question. Because what I do, I’ve got to establish credibility and a rapport with my clients, and ultimately with jurors. Now, I will say I haven’t run into too many defense lawyers that I would stamp their hip hop credibility card. I’m waiting for one of them. But when I get in front of juries, particularly in Brooklyn, which is where I’m from and where I want to practice, you know what? I think I’m sometimes a smart guy, whatever. Obviously I could relate to upper-middle-class, white Jewish people. That’s who I am. But if I can’t relate to regular guys, I might be at a disadvantage. And I think if you fake that, people just know. You can’t just be doing that.
Sharieff:
Hey, hey, and I’m not saying this because I work here. The results speak for themselves. What? We see what happens when we step in the courtroom. We know what happens.
Paul Edelstein:
You got it. So you want to hear a funny story, a hip hop story in the courtroom? I’m going to tell you one. I don’t even know if you remember this. All right.
So you remember this case? You were here. We had this case. The guy’s name was Michael Shabayev. All right. So listen, see? You don’t remember. I’m going to tell you the story. You’re going to see your reaction. Michael Shabayev. All right.
So I’m picking a jury on Shabayev’s case in Brooklyn. So when you’re picking, so you have 25, 30 people, who was a really good regular mixed Brooklyn panel. It’s exactly what you want. You want this great diversity. And Brooklyn has got tremendous amount of diversity. It’s fantastic.
So there’s people in there from all across the boards, but there’s plenty of people in there that I could just tell… Maybe it’s stereotypical, but I’m thinking they got their hip hop [inaudible 00:08:00] card too. So whatever. Picking the jury, no problem.
But when I’m done with the first round, the picking… The way it works is like, all right, so we talked to 8 people first, but there’s 25 in a room. So we pick 4 jurors out of that first 8 and they’re selected. So we have to tell the 8 of them, “All right, you guys, here’s what we’re doing. You 4, Smith, Jones,” whatever it… “You guys are on the case. And you other 4, you’ve been excused from the case. So you got to go to the clerk’s window.” So you’re giving them instructions, like what to do. And everybody else is still in the room, hearing you.
So I’m telling him that. And I’m like, “Listen, you go to the clerk. You got to tell him you were selected on the Shabayev case.” And they’re looking at me because it’s a weird name, Shabayev. And I’m like, “Shabayev. Like Shaba Ranks.” So exactly.
Now, I wasn’t planning on saying that. I don’t know. It just came out. Now, my defense lawyer was… Let’s just say he didn’t have his hip hop card. I don’t think he had his freaking any card. I don’t think this guy is from Earth. He didn’t even know. They were all laughing, the jurors. And a lot of the jurors that were in the room were laughing. Obviously it was the 50% of the jurors that knew who Shaba Ranks was. But I’m telling you, obviously they were like, “This white guy in a suit knew about Shaba Ranks?” Whatever. The case was over.
So you see where this comes in handy? I bet you never thought the hip hop credibility card could be so valuable for just a white lawyer in a suit like me.
Sharieff:
Hey, that’s hip hop for you, man. It’s universal, like I said, it’s what it does.
Paul Edelstein:
That’s right. I didn’t even have to go to school for that. It was just normal. They just loving it. See, this is where hip hop comes into the courtroom in a big way.
Sharieff:
We’ve seen it though. We’ve seen cases where… Like if you look at a lot of high profile cases, you know what I mean, that’s involving hip hop artists and stuff? You’ll see the sway of the jury so much that most of these cases are closed off to the public. You know what I mean? Because they’re so influential.
If you look at this whole Young Thug thing… I know this is a criminal matter, but this whole thing with Young Thug and then going onto Atlanta with doing everything. If he don’t get a mistrial then I don’t understand. It’s so many things that should not be happening, happening.
Paul Edelstein:
I tell you what, you’re going into a different topic.
Sharieff:
Yeah, I’m going somewhere else.
Paul Edelstein:
No, but that’s okay. Because let’s talk about that topic. Let’s switch topics. Let’s take a second.
Thanks for joining us on Pulling Back the Legal Curtain with Paul and Glenn. Because we get so many questions over so many years about what goes on behind the legal curtain in the legal world, we tried to put this together so that it would be entertaining, and interesting, and hopefully educational.
If you liked it, come join us again or visit our website at edelsteinslaw.com. Either way, we’re always going to be here in front of and behind the legal curtain, doing the only thing that we know how to do, which is proceed.
Take care.
You can find The Edelsteins Faegenburg & Brown Law firm on LinkedIn.