Hitting the High Notes: An Attorney’s Passion for Music and the Law
This is the second of six articles that will examine lawyers and their work practices by day in contrast to the personal interests that they pursue outside of the office. The goal of this column is to enlighten our readers about the private endeavors of attorneys with whom we come in contact in the profession. It is our hope that this series of articles allow our readers to see the other side of lawyers, who manage to pursue unique interests despite their demanding careers.
Doug Mishkin
To the legal community, Doug Mishkin is a partner at Patton Boggs, where he specializes in employment law and co-chairs the firm’s employment and diversity practice groups; to others he is a popular singer-songwriter with a faithful following. For most of his adult life, Mishkin has adeptly and successfully pursued his legal vocation and musical avocation, deriving recognition and personal satisfaction from both.
As a law student at George Washington University, Mishkin never doubted that he would continue to play music after passing the bar. His conviction to do so was confirmed when a lawyer-friend took him to the Birchmere to hear a bluegrass band featuring a Federal Trade Commission lawyer. “From then on,” says Mishkin, “there was no holding me back. I simply assumed I could do both.
“Musician and attorney are very different roles to play,” concedes Mishkin. “But for me, personally, it’s always been about a set of values that I bring to different activities, and these values come from the same place.”
Mishkin grew up in Monroe, N.Y., a small town 50 miles north of New York City. His father, a lawyer with his own practice, never pressured him to join the family business. He did not need to because Mishkin, who shared his father’s interest in history and politics and learned about law at the dinner table, was drawn to a career in law.
As a child, Mishkin already possessed a keen interest in music, taking piano lessons at eight and playing the acoustic guitar by 10. At the age of 14, he discovered folk music during Jewish summer camp when young counselors played songs around the campfire. Mishkin’s father bolstered his son’s interest in folk music when he described its singers as the true conscience of the nation.
In his first year as a history major at Brown University, Mishkin wrote a song titled “Woody’s Children,” a term originally coined by famed folk singer and activist Pete Seeger as a name for a select group of musicians, including Bob Dylan and Judy Collins, who followed in the philosophic and stylistic footsteps of the legendary father of folk Woody Guthrie. With his heartfelt, hummable tune, Mishkin successfully attempted to expand the nickname to include not just well-known singers, but all Guthrie fans who sing his songs around campfires, at rallies, and during other gatherings.
Mishkin sent a homemade tape of his song to an esteemed New York-based folk radio show also called “Woody’s Children.” To his delight, they played it. Seven years later, Mishkin was contacted by the radio show about using his song for a sing-along number featuring a group of folk greats in celebration of the program’s 15th anniversary. After some persuading on his part, it was agreed that Mishkin—who in the meantime had become a successful DC attorney—would be a part of the live performance.
“Woody’s Children,” by Doug Mishkin.
“I had read where the famed circus tightrope walker Karl Wallenda once said, ‘Up on the wire is life. Everything else is just waiting around,’ ” recalls Mishkin. “That night, when I was on stage with my musical hero Pete Seeger and Tom Paxton and others singing, I had the sensation that I was lifted up. I was on the wire.”
Mishkin reports experiencing a similar emotion when he is litigating: “I feel that way when I’m arguing to a jury or a judge, and once in a while in a particularly fun deposition,” says Mishkin.
“Both singing and litigating definitely require a sense of audience.”
Soon after graduating from law school in 1981, Mishkin began practicing with Melrod, Redman & Gartlan in Washington, DC. Within five years, he was a partner doing employment work. In 1993, Mishkin joined the law firm of McKenna & Cuneo, where he spent five satisfying years before leaving for Patton Boggs to help start the firm’s employment practice.
Throughout his early years in the legal profession, Mishkin kept up with his music as well. In 1986, he wrote, “Make Those Waters Part,” a stirring hymn about fighting for freedom, to commemorate a Passover seder attended by leaders of the Reform Jewish community and African American participants, including then-NAACP Executive Director Benjamin Hooks. This song and 11 others are included in his 1987 debut album, “Woody’s Children.”
“I don’t go looking for song subjects, I let them occur to me,” says Mishkin. “Some themes come from my Jewish identity and resonate with people who share that and beyond. Ultimately, the music is universal. It was a thrill to hear ‘Make Those Waters Part,’ sung by an African American gospel choir because that’s how I heard it in my mind when I wrote it.”
Although he spends 98 percent of his time practicing law, Mishkin prefers not to draw hard lines between his so-called vocation and avocation. While he understands why people feel the need to make the distinction, Mishkin references Boston Celtics legend Bill Russell, who wrote in his autobiography that he is not a basketball player, but rather a man who plays basketball.
“I’m a lawyer, but I sing and write songs,” says Mishkin. “I’m a father and I’m a husband. I like to think that each of these roles enhances the others. There are innumerable ways that my music activities feed into my practice of law, sometimes with imagery, and sometimes literally.”
Part of Mishkin’s practice includes training human resource professionals. Mishkin leans heavily on storytelling in these training programs and sometimes goes one step further. Inspired by Pete Seeger’s example of getting people to sing along, Mishkin occasionally gets program participants to tell the stories along with him, by teaching the stories as he would teach an audience to sing along on a song. In one presentation, he actually gets the group to sing with him. “I’m willing to bet I’m the only presenter at a SHRM conference whose presentation ended with everyone in the room singing ‘Amazing Grace.’ Then I point out: ‘A Jewish lawyer leading a Christian spiritual—now that’s diversity.’ ”
Over the years, Mishkin has played at innumerable concerts for synagogues across the country, raising money for Reform Jewish summer camps and educational programs in Israel, and has performed in concert with well-known musicians Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul & Mary and Tom Chapin.
Locally, he has regularly performed at house concerts as benefits for the Lab School of Washington, Green Acres, and Georgetown Day School, schools his two daughters have attended. His performances typically feature his own compositions, plus a mix of the work of singer-songwriters like Don McLean and James Taylor with more obscure material.
One interesting twist to Mishkin’s musical activities is that he has sung at memorial services for people of note, including slain political activist Allard Lowenstein, legendary civil rights lawyer Joe Raul, Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone, and DC Superior Court Judge Harriet Taylor.
Mishkin is currently working on his second CD, “Climbing That Ladder,” which is scheduled to be released later this year. And what if Mishkin were to land a multimillion dollar record deal tomorrow? Would he say goodbye to law?
“Although I wouldn’t mind having that choice,” chuckles Mishkin, “the answer is ‘no.’ I’d never quit my job to single-mindedly pursue music. I wouldn’t want to make music without doing law too. Not only do I enjoy practicing law, but I also enjoy the offshoots of my practice: being on a hospital ethics committee, the diversity activities that I’m involved in through the firm, and the international aspect of what I do. Surely the time will come when I’ll want to change the proportions of time that I spend on my various activities, but for now the whole package makes for a very interesting life.” DB
Patrick Folliard is a freelance writer based in Silver Spring, Md.
From the March/April 2007 issue of Diversity & The Bar®