{"id":125123,"date":"2025-07-01T23:19:53","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T07:19:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/07\/01\/this-law-firm-partner-will-never-stop-clowning-around\/"},"modified":"2025-07-01T23:19:53","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T07:19:53","slug":"this-law-firm-partner-will-never-stop-clowning-around","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/07\/01\/this-law-firm-partner-will-never-stop-clowning-around\/","title":{"rendered":"This Law Firm Partner Will Never Stop \u2018Clowning Around\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ed. note<\/u>: Welcome to our daily feature, Quote of the Day<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

It is common to think that good lawyers stand out in a crowd. In fact, the sad truth is that most lawyers are a commodity item, and in order to stand out, we need to be different. My greatest revelation, as a result of my decade of participating as a clown was that I began to stand out \u2014 not only for my legal ability or professionalism, but because I was a clown.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I was introduced at legal and social gatherings, people would say, \u201cHe is a lawyer, but guess what? He is also a clown.\u201d Word of mouth began to spread, and I was eventually\u00a0featured on a PBS documentary depicting the behind-the-scenes, yearlong preparation to be in the parade. After that,\u00a0even in serious judicial proceedings when I had made a presentation to the court, I would hear the refrain from the judge, \u201cMr. Tatelbaum, you\u2019re not clowning around are you?\u201d This would, on occasion, unnerve a client in the courtroom who was unaware of my extracurricular activity.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014 <\/i>Charles M. Tatelbaum<\/a>, a director at\u00a0Tripp Scott<\/a>, in an essay published at Law360<\/a>, as part of a series where attorneys explain how their \u201cunusual extracurricular activities\u201d have helped them in their careers. In addition to his legal career, Tatelbaum works as a clown on a volunteer basis during the Macy\u2019s Thanksgiving Day Parade each year. He says that performing as a clown has enhanced his communication skills, even though, \u201c[t]o [his] sometimes chagrin, [he is] better known as \u2018Chuckles the Clown\u2019 than as Charles Tatelbaum the attorney.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\"Staci
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Staci Zaretsky<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she\u2019s worked since 2011. She\u2019d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email<\/a> her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on\u00a0Bluesky<\/a>,\u00a0X\/Twitter<\/a>, and\u00a0Threads<\/a>,\u00a0or connect with her on\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post This Law Firm Partner Will Never Stop \u2018Clowning Around\u2019<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ed. note<\/u>: Welcome to our daily feature, Quote of the Day<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

It is common to think that good lawyers stand out in a crowd. In fact, the sad truth is that most lawyers are a commodity item, and in order to stand out, we need to be different. My greatest revelation, as a result of my decade of participating as a clown was that I began to stand out \u2014 not only for my legal ability or professionalism, but because I was a clown.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I was introduced at legal and social gatherings, people would say, \u201cHe is a lawyer, but guess what? He is also a clown.\u201d Word of mouth began to spread, and I was eventually\u00a0featured on a PBS documentary depicting the behind-the-scenes, yearlong preparation to be in the parade. After that,\u00a0even in serious judicial proceedings when I had made a presentation to the court, I would hear the refrain from the judge, \u201cMr. Tatelbaum, you\u2019re not clowning around are you?\u201d This would, on occasion, unnerve a client in the courtroom who was unaware of my extracurricular activity.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014 <\/i>Charles M. Tatelbaum<\/a>, a director at\u00a0Tripp Scott<\/a>, in an essay published at Law360<\/a>, as part of a series where attorneys explain how their \u201cunusual extracurricular activities\u201d have helped them in their careers. In addition to his legal career, Tatelbaum works as a clown on a volunteer basis during the Macy\u2019s Thanksgiving Day Parade each year. He says that performing as a clown has enhanced his communication skills, even though, \u201c[t]o [his] sometimes chagrin, [he is] better known as \u2018Chuckles the Clown\u2019 than as Charles Tatelbaum the attorney.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\"Staci
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Staci Zaretsky<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she\u2019s worked since 2011. She\u2019d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email<\/a> her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on\u00a0Bluesky<\/a>,\u00a0X\/Twitter<\/a>, and\u00a0Threads<\/a>,\u00a0or connect with her on\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post This Law Firm Partner Will Never Stop \u2018Clowning Around\u2019<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ed. note: Welcome to our daily feature, Quote of the Day. It is common to think that good lawyers stand out in a crowd. In fact, the sad truth is that most lawyers are a commodity item, and in order to stand out, we need to be different. My greatest revelation, as a result of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":125081,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Staci-Zaretsky-vgcXMZ.jpeg?fit=150%2C100&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}