I wanted to acknowledge the passing of Orville Almon,
Jr. There are very few people I consider
to be true mentors in this world but Orville would be at the top of the
list. I learned so much about
entertainment law and the business of law from him both as the person on the other end of the phone line and during the 4 years I worked at his
law firm, Zumwalt, Almon & Hayes. As another lawyer friend remarked, "He
taught a lot of us how to dot the i's and cross the t's." That is so true. I would venture to say that the majority of
my "stock" forms came from Orville (and I'm sure I'm not the alone in
this). When I worked with Orville I was
impressed by his discipline. He came into the office at nearly the same
time every day and just cranked. That's
how you get stuff done.
More importantly, Orville was kind. I noticed this first as a young lawyer. He was friendly and courteous and never
seemed to be pursuing an agenda – other than to get the deal finished. When we spoke, we had real conversations. I am sure we were on opposite sides of the political spectrum but since he was a vet, he earned the right to his opinions.
Unfortunately, I had not spoken to Orville in a while. I think the last thing we worked on together
was a dispute between two equally eccentric clients and I kind of enjoyed
picturing Orville's frustration with the inanity of the whole thing.
He was truly one of the greats and I will miss him.
