Page 16 - Los Angeles Vol 5 No 2
P. 16

ATTORNEY OF THE MONTH
Louis Meisinger
In His Court
WRITTEN BY SARAH TORRES PHOTOGRAPHED BY HUGH WILLIAMS
Hon. Lou Meisinger’s (Ret.) journey to the courthouse— and back again—is what some might describe as for- tuitous. A career-changing phone call here, a judicial appointment there, a prime consultancy opening at just the right time. And in between: A lot of hard work.
A neutral at Signature Resolution, an alternative dispute resolution  rm sta ed with an elite circle of mediators and arbitrators that formed in 2017, “retired” is part of Meisinger’s title, but slowing down isn’t on the docket. He serves as a neutral for some of the highest pro le cases in the country, all while mentoring the next generation of attorneys in the intricacies of taking a case before jurists just like him.
Meisinger didn’t plan for a career in law in his early days. With no particular area of interest in high school and an undergrad major of questionable practicality, law was what he called a “default option.”
“I was a Spanish major in college. When I got to be a junior, I start- ed thinking seriously about what I was going to do a er graduation,” Meisinger says. “Someone suggested law, and I went with that.”
Show Business
With an interest in the entertainment industry, Meisinger took a clerkship at an entertainment law  rm in his second year of law school and joined the  rm a er graduation. But six months a er he joined the  rm, it dissolved, and the partners went their separate ways.
Teaming with one of the partners, his practice took a di erent turn. For the next seven years he was a trial lawyer doing business work. In 1975, Meisinger and three friends formed their own law  rm where Meisinger continued his focus on corporate and commercial litigation.
 en one day in 1977, the phone rang.
“A friend of mine who had become general counsel for Columbia Pictures asked me if I would represent the company in a case,” he says. “And I said, ‘of course!’”
“Mediation
has grown exponentially because the courts are overwhelmed,” he explains. “ ere’s a niche
for alternative dispute resolution companies to take the load o  the courts by having the mediators settle the cases and reduce the courts’ workload.”
ATTORNEY AT LAW MAGAZINE · LOS ANGELES · VOL. 5 NO. 2 16


































































































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