Daily Diary

Behead of legal

Posted 22/11/2007 by The Daily Diary

The Diary always likes to pay groveling homage to those multi-talented lawyers that their own unique definition of value to the cultural, legal and socio-political morass. Amazingly, the superb name of Texas in-house lawyer and all-round renaissance man C Lee Cusenbary is not even the best thing about him.

Cusenbary, general counsel at niche pharmaceutical company Mission Pharmacal, has carved time out of his undoubtedly hectic schedule to compose a unique, if grisly, musical first – the world’s only stage show based on the beheading of deposed 17th century monarch King Charles I.

Cusenbary’s epic – named ‘Lament’ and available on CD from Amazon just in time for Christmas (probably) – is the latest in a string of artistic exploits from the fecund brain-space of the San Antonio law-monger, whose back-catalogue includes ‘Ethics Follies Follies 2007’, a dramatic three-hour CPD-fest presented by the Association of Corporate Counsel. (Hurry to get your copy while stocks last!)

Friends and colleagues of Cusenbary (though perhaps not theatre critics) have likened his latest opus to smash West End hits like Phantom of the Opera.

His example gets The Diary thinking about other possible musical material in commercial law. Certainly the down-trodden masses of Les Miserables have plenty in common with magic circle trainees, while the appeal of Grease to City slickers is obvious enough.

Meanwhile, Avenue Q – with its ironic anthem ‘Everyone’s A Little Bit Racist’ – might apply to the recruitment policy of one or two backward-thinking City outfits.

Likewise, Spamalot could easily refer to those over-eager law firm PR teams that bombard The Diary with meaningless missives on a daily basis, while for those US corporate counsel in trouble for shady stock-option shenanigans, it can only be Fiddler on the Roof.