EDITOR’S COLUMN
Today, Follow Our Courts releases its second video in the Stories of Law in the IE series.
In this one, I sat with Bill Shapiro in his San Bernardino Fun Zone. If you haven’t seen it in person, get an eyeful here.
His office building includes a massive attached garage, where he houses about 10 classic cars, a pool table, slot machines, guitars and a working recreation of Court Street West’s bar – including the sign and etched glass from this watering hole where lawyers hung out in the 1970s.
Shapiro’s building used to be part of Tri-City Airport, run by Evelyn Pinckert “Pinky” Brier, who lived in the residence above the offices, and in addition to regular airport business, ran a restaurant and a flight school there.
Shapiro describes her as the Inland Empire’s Amelia Earhart. According to The Sun, she was the first female flight instructor in the country.
Shapiro and I sat at a pub table in the un-air conditioned Fun Zone wearing business suits for the interview. It was somewhere around 110 degrees outside and even hotter in the garage. In fact we had to stop filming at one point because the recording equipment overheated.
Shapiro was a great sport about all of it. Not only did he answer all my questions with no complaints about my keeping him in the heat for so long, but when it was over he took Sami Pioneer (Pinarli), who is the lead multimedia specialist for McCune Law Group (our sponsor), and me into the cool offices and gave us water and a tour and more stories.
In the video, Shapiro tells the story of his case against pop singer Mariah Carey. Shapiro’s clients wrote and recorded a song they claim she copied, (“Similarity of song was no issue. There’s no doubt,” Shapiro says,) and he details the years’long-awaited moment where he found the connection he needed to prove she had had access to his clients’ song before she recorded hers.
He talks about trying a suit against RoundUp that turned historical when COVID-19 shut down the courthouse midtrial. He gives an account of transitioning to virtual proceedings with most parties learning together how to use the technology.
We discussed the importance of civility in the courtroom.
“Everybody thinks that lawyers, trial lawyers in particular, are here to beat their chest, pound somebody in a disrespectful manner, point their fingers, all those things,” he says. “The more persuasive lawyer, and the more effective lawyer, is the lawyer who can prove a case through being demonstrative in the evidence.”
At the end of our conversation, he reflected on the changes he’s seen in the bench and bar in his nearly 50-year career practicing law in San Bernardino.
“We’re gonna be OK in the Inland Empire, from a legal standpoint, as long as the vibe stays the same,” he says.
