From 9/3/1967 with Dead at the Rio Nido Ballroom and Charlatans
Both times I was busted Brian Rohan got me out before I had to spend the night in jail. The stories are at the two links above. Below are two press profiles of Rohan.
Brian Rohan: The People’s Lawyer
Soon after joining Fillmore Management, I met Brian Rohan, the third member of the Fillmore triumvirate (with Bill Graham and David Rubinson), a handsome, burly Irishman that I nicknamed the Marlon Brandon of the record industry. He got the prettiest women to fall madly in love with him and then treated them in the cavalier fashion of a scoundrel and a rogue.
Rohan got his start in San Francisco by defending pot and LSD dealers and saved them from the clutches of jail. For this he became known as a ‘people’s lawyer’. Ken Kesey was one of his clients and so was Neil Cassady, Jack Kerouac’s sidekick, who was a close friend of mine when I lived in San Miguel de Allende and started managing a band there.
Rohan negotiated all recording and publishing contracts negotiated on behalf of Fillmore Management, Fillmore Records and Pamela Polland. He was the lawyer for the Grateful Dead. He negotiated the most complete and remarkable contracts recording artists signed at that time. His negotiating tactic was procrastination. He would drive record company executives crazy with a stall until they gave in to his demands. Drove the bands crazy with waiting as well.
https://homesweetjeromedrapaport.wordpress.com/tag/brian-rohan-grateful-dead-brian-rohan-fillmore-management/
Brian Rohan, though he is probably one of the most successful dope lawyers, hasn’t worn a suit in a year, his usual attire being faded corduroys and a T shirt. He wears dark glasses at all times. “I can’t look people in the eye when I ask for all that money – I get it, and it’s insane.” When he wants to drive his battered four-year-old mustang convertible he climbs in the back since the front doors don’t open. It isn’t that Brian is a miser, he just doesn’t seem to care.
Restless, moving through life at triple speed, relishing new challenges, Brian now is leaving the dope scene and devote his entire time to rock music and movies. Earlier this year Esquire named him one of the “Heavy 100” people in rock and roll.
He and his partner, Michael Stepanian, were the first San Francisco lawyers to defend hippies in large numbers. Brian talks like the historian of hip.
“When I got ready to practice law I looked around for a disenfranchised class because I had a Messianic complex, and every minority group in San Francisco had a lawyer including the dykes. The flower children were starting then, and nobody would take them because they were dirty and they stunk and they were getting busted for dope. I didn’t give a damn whether dope was legal or not, only that these kids were not being treated equally in the eyes of the law. Then bails were incredibly high, they were treated rudely and were given stiff sentences for first offenses. One time it was the joint for a joint. A previously convicted armed robber got out on $7500 bail while a kid with no previous record was given $10,000 bail for one marijuana cigarette.
“I also knew that behind every hippie stood a middle-class family – economically the hippies were sound.
“Let me emphasize that we, Michael and I, really loved these people. We flew all over the state, and people called us from all over the county. By 1967 we were representing 200 free cases a year. We knew they are all coming to the Haight in the summer of ’67 and somebody would have to represent them. So Michael and I started HALO – the Haight Ashbury Legal Organization. We put on a benefit at Winterland to finance it – all the big rock bands played because some of them had been my clients for dope busts.
“Stepanian and I represented four hundred kids that summer of ’67 – The Summer of Love. I got everyone bailed out on my signature. In seven years of dope cases I’ve only had two people jump bail. All the rest stayed around to catch the action.
“By the end of ’67 dope was boring me. I felt we had done everything there was to do. I thought music would be fun. It was a challenge to start it in San Francisco. The music kids, the people in the rock bands were being abused by the record companies the same way the hippies were with dope. They were the victims of unfair, dishonest contracts. The record companies didn’t understand the market for their music. Music was the same Messianic trip as dope. I helped the kids and helped begin the music business in San Francisco.”
“My first music show was at the Fillmore in 1967. I rented the hall for $75
Rohan negotiated all recording and publishing contracts negotiated on behalf of Fillmore Management, Fillmore Records and Pamela Polland. He was the lawyer for the Grateful Dead. He negotiated the most complete and remarkable contracts recording artists signed at that time. His negotiating tactic was procrastination. He would drive record company executives crazy with a stall until they gave in to his demands. Drove the bands crazy with waiting as well.
“https://maureenorth.com/1970/12/for-love-and-money-the-dope-lawyers-california-living-1970/
Image at top of page: OpenSFHistory / wnp28.2450.jpg