by Mira Swaminathan Efi.One would think that law and the black (grey?) letter of the law could not be further apart. The nine gentlemen mentioned below obviously thought otherwise. Here is a list of nine famous stars who have a degree in law. Bet you did not know about #7..1. John Cleese.One of the funniest men in the history of entertainment has a law degree from Cambridge. But he didn’t leave the jury rolling in the aisles: Cleese never actually practiced..Along with Graham Chapman and Eric Idle, both of whom he met at Cambridge, Cleese was one of the six co-founders of a comedy troupe you may have heard of. The troupe went by the name Monty Python..2. Geraldo Rivera.Rivera was one of the top five in his Brooklyn Law School class in 1969. As the lawyer for a Puerto Rican activist group called the Young Lords, Rivera caught the eye of an ABC executive who offered him a job, and his career in journalism began..3. Ben Stein.Ben Stein started his professional life as a lawyer. In fact, Stein was valedictorian at Yale Law School where he joined after a degree in economics from Columbia. Stein was given his own game show by Comedy Central, titled Win Ben Stein’s Money, along with co-host Jimmy Kimmel. The show won five Daytime Emmy Awards before ending its run in 2003..4. Gerard Butler .Butler worked as a trainee lawyer for a couple of years at a Edinburgh law firm and was just a week away from qualifying when he got fired. Though he didn’t quite make the grade, Butler has admitted that the degree has come in handy during his brushes with the law..5. Jerry Springer.Yes, you read that right. The original reality show king, Springer got a JD from Northwestern University in 1968. Soon thereafter, he landed a job as a campaign aide to Robert Kennedy..After Kennedy was assassinated, Springer joined Frost & Jacobs, a law firm in Cincinnati. He got involved in local politics and became a small-scale celebrity, which earned him a radio show in the ‘80s..6. Ozzie Nelson.The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet star graduated from Rutgers, law degree in hand, in 1930. The degree must have come in handy when he negotiated the first-ever “noncancellable ten-year contract,” an agreement with ABC that gave the Nelsons a salary for 10 years, even if they weren’t working..7. Jeff Cohen.After getting a degree Business Administration from UC Berkeley – and becoming president of the student body under the campaign slogan “Chunk for President” – the Goonies actor earned his law degree from the UCLA School of Law. He went on to build a practice in entertainment law, and founded the firm Cohen & Gardner..8. Josh Saviano.Joining Jeff Cohen in the lawyer-slash-child-actor category is Josh Saviano, a.k.a. Kevin’s sidekick Paul Pfeiffer in The Wonder Years. After getting his B.A. at Yale, Saviano got his J.D. from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and now practices in New York..9. Charlie Korsmo.Score another one for child actors who grew up to be responsible, well-adjusted adults. One might remember him as The Kid in Dick Tracy or Peter Pan’s son Jack in Hook..After an appearance in 1998’s Can’t Hardly Wait, Korsmo earned a degree in physics from M.I.T. in 2006. Six years later, he got a J.D. from Yale, and went on to become a professor at Cleveland’s Case Western Reserve University School of Law..Mira Swaminathan Efi is interning with Bar & Bench. She loves being asked about the “Efi” at the end of her name. So please do ask her.
by Mira Swaminathan Efi.One would think that law and the black (grey?) letter of the law could not be further apart. The nine gentlemen mentioned below obviously thought otherwise. Here is a list of nine famous stars who have a degree in law. Bet you did not know about #7..1. John Cleese.One of the funniest men in the history of entertainment has a law degree from Cambridge. But he didn’t leave the jury rolling in the aisles: Cleese never actually practiced..Along with Graham Chapman and Eric Idle, both of whom he met at Cambridge, Cleese was one of the six co-founders of a comedy troupe you may have heard of. The troupe went by the name Monty Python..2. Geraldo Rivera.Rivera was one of the top five in his Brooklyn Law School class in 1969. As the lawyer for a Puerto Rican activist group called the Young Lords, Rivera caught the eye of an ABC executive who offered him a job, and his career in journalism began..3. Ben Stein.Ben Stein started his professional life as a lawyer. In fact, Stein was valedictorian at Yale Law School where he joined after a degree in economics from Columbia. Stein was given his own game show by Comedy Central, titled Win Ben Stein’s Money, along with co-host Jimmy Kimmel. The show won five Daytime Emmy Awards before ending its run in 2003..4. Gerard Butler .Butler worked as a trainee lawyer for a couple of years at a Edinburgh law firm and was just a week away from qualifying when he got fired. Though he didn’t quite make the grade, Butler has admitted that the degree has come in handy during his brushes with the law..5. Jerry Springer.Yes, you read that right. The original reality show king, Springer got a JD from Northwestern University in 1968. Soon thereafter, he landed a job as a campaign aide to Robert Kennedy..After Kennedy was assassinated, Springer joined Frost & Jacobs, a law firm in Cincinnati. He got involved in local politics and became a small-scale celebrity, which earned him a radio show in the ‘80s..6. Ozzie Nelson.The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet star graduated from Rutgers, law degree in hand, in 1930. The degree must have come in handy when he negotiated the first-ever “noncancellable ten-year contract,” an agreement with ABC that gave the Nelsons a salary for 10 years, even if they weren’t working..7. Jeff Cohen.After getting a degree Business Administration from UC Berkeley – and becoming president of the student body under the campaign slogan “Chunk for President” – the Goonies actor earned his law degree from the UCLA School of Law. He went on to build a practice in entertainment law, and founded the firm Cohen & Gardner..8. Josh Saviano.Joining Jeff Cohen in the lawyer-slash-child-actor category is Josh Saviano, a.k.a. Kevin’s sidekick Paul Pfeiffer in The Wonder Years. After getting his B.A. at Yale, Saviano got his J.D. from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and now practices in New York..9. Charlie Korsmo.Score another one for child actors who grew up to be responsible, well-adjusted adults. One might remember him as The Kid in Dick Tracy or Peter Pan’s son Jack in Hook..After an appearance in 1998’s Can’t Hardly Wait, Korsmo earned a degree in physics from M.I.T. in 2006. Six years later, he got a J.D. from Yale, and went on to become a professor at Cleveland’s Case Western Reserve University School of Law..Mira Swaminathan Efi is interning with Bar & Bench. She loves being asked about the “Efi” at the end of her name. So please do ask her.
