Apologies to George Clooney and all lawyers for using Michael Clayton as the poster boy for this post.

Baltimore's law and business journal, The Daily Record, has a nifty little blog called On The Record that posts regularly about the goings-on in the legal community. Today's post refers to a story in the paper about bands comprised of lawyers. Names of these bands tend to be almost painful in their effort to make a legal pun ( The Objections; The Mighty, Mighty Barristers; The Appealables), but the story shows that the suit-and-tie and power pumps crowd knows how to have a little fun, too.

It's intriguing to imagine a powerful trial attorney shaking in his shoes on his first open-mic night, or the pensive business lawyer tuning up her guitar for a mid-Atlantic tour, to be sure, but you're not likely to find these performers at the Ottobar opening up for The Melvins. As one attorney points out in the piece, it can be difficult to pull a weeknight gig with a set at 11:00 PM when you have a hearing at 9 the next morning. What's more, a lot of professionals sacrificed a free-spiriting part of their youth to study full-time for their chosen career path, and being in a band is a bit of a delayed gratification, enjoyed (at this stage in life) more for its adventure than the artistic integrity. Cover tunes are de rigeur in many cases, sprawling original compositions a rarity.

Keeping your eyes on the solicitation for performance pieces from the musically inclined white-collar crowd might be a good idea. If you're a lawyer, submit your piece to the foregoing link. Anyone else out there a lawyer or any other sort of worker drone who has a band with his or her peers? Maybe some auto mechanics named Mike & The Mechanics? Wait, that name was already used ...

Tags: Baltimore, Bands, Lawyers