Page 42 - AVN October 2016

LEGALESE | | By Clyde DeWitt
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could dazzle a
”Arthur Schwartz
judge as well as
it could be done.
In a jury trial, he
Arthur Schwartz—there is so much to say about him
You see, Texas had enacted a bunch of supposed upgrades to its obscenity
laws; some of them stood to be pretty damaging to the industry.
So, after being an assistant DA for six years and having avoided
prosecuting obscenity cases, I was thrown into one. My job at that
point—defending lawsuits against the DA’s office or any of its people—
meant that these three lawsuits were in my department. Reluctantly, I
appeared in federal court to defend the DA. An army of lawyers appeared;
there were dozens of porn-company plaintiffs and dozens of governmental
could climb right
into the jury box.
LEGAL NEWS
Clyde DeWitt is a Las Vegas and Los Angeles
attorney, whose practice has been focused on adult
entertainment since 1980. He can be reached at
ClydeDeWitt@earthlink.net. More information can
be found at ClydeDeWitt.com. This column is not a
substitute for personal legal advice. Rather, it is to alert
readers to legal issues warranting advice from your
personal attorney.
As is journalistic practice, this column is usually
written in the third person. This one is an exception
because I have such a direct, personal interest in the
subject.
Many of you have never heard of Arthur Schwartz.
Arthur has been retired for a few years. He is 89
years old, enjoying retirement. Sadly, he lost his
charming wife a few years ago.
Arthur Schwartz is much of the reason that you
are able to do what you are doing. To the adult
industry, Art was somewhere in the realm of Ty Cobb
or Babe Ruth. The Rocky Mountain News accurately
quoted him in 1975: “You have to love a good fight
and believe in what you are doing.”
Art was a fighter, all right. He was one of the
founding members and one of the first officers of
the First Amendment Lawyers Association; and that
organization has done incredible work to keep the
First Amendment intact, to the extent that has been
possible.
My friend Lou Sirkin, a First Amendment Attorney
supreme from Cincinnati—a very tough place to play
that game—summed it up pretty well:
“Art Schwartz has meant so much to me as a
mentor and friend. He practiced law and represented
the adult industry always with class, skill and
charmed not only juries but the judges he appeared
before. Every time I worked with Art, I felt honored
and was overwhelmed by his work ethic and his
sense of humor.
“I cannot say enough about the importance his
contribution has meant to the preservation of
the adult industry that has resulted from his skill
battling the government’s attempt to silence sexual
expression.”
There is a long list of other First Amendment
attorneys who would express comparable sentiments,
including me.
I first met Arthur in my other life—when I was
general counsel to the district attorney in Houston.
defendants. The only thing I could think of was the colossal waste of
resources this all was.
All of the attorneys announced their appearances. Marian Rosen, a
high-level Houston criminal defense attorney; John Weston, an impressive
Beverly Hills attorney with a most impressive track record of representing
the porn industry; and Arthur Schwartz, this avuncular fellow from
Denver who hardly seemed like the pit bulls that were Mr. Weston
and Ms. Rosen. Also present was a gaggle of government attorneys.
Unfortunately, few of them had a clue; most weren’t even licensed in
federal court. So, the worst thing happened: the newly minted judge
who presided over the case, Hon. Norman Black, had been an adjunct
professor at the University of Houston Law School, where I had been one
of his students. He appointed me lead counsel. I was trying to hide in the
corner!
Little could I dream that a decade later I would be in Beverly Hills,
working with Arthur Schwartz and John Weston on the FW/PBS Supreme
Court case—the one that dismantled most of the adult licensing
ordinances in the country.
Arthur Schwartz could dazzle a judge as well as it could be done.
In a jury trial, he could climb right into the jury box. I never heard of
anyone who knew Arthur and who thought he was anything other than a
wonderful person; a legal scholar; and a devoted advocate to his clients.
A piece in the Denver Post published a year or two before I first met
Arthur described him as “a well-dressed, successful attorney who
has retained a boyish enthusiasm for his work.” It sure looked like it
to me. One local biographer included a tag line under Art’s picture:
“Arthur Schwartz: Giving the Devil his Due.” I like that. Someone once
firebombed his office. I don’t like that; but it tells you something about
his relentless zeal.
Other lawyers who know Art had more to say.
Michigan attorney Brad Shafer, who keeps the Déjà Vu chain, among
others, in business, said, “It would be impossible to summarize in a few
paragraphs everything I learned from Art during the 15 years I had the
privilege of practicing law with him. His instincts in a courtroom and his
cross-examination skills were nothing short of mesmerizing to anyone
who was lucky enough to have seen him in trial. But above all, his love
of the First Amendment and his love of the law were so contagious that
it enabled him to make every courtroom he entered feel like it was his
home, and everyone else in that courtroom, whether friend or foe, to feel
like a treasured guest. I think it’s fair to say that anyone who ever saw
him in action knows exactly what I mean.”
Michael Gross, a Denver attorney who began working for Art in 1984
and was Art’s super-technical guy, summed it up very well: “Art was a
brilliant trial lawyer who always had fun in court and conveyed that to
the jury. Art was a master at showing to the jury the ridiculous nature
of the government criminalizing speech involving our universal human
sexuality. While Art was a happy warrior in the courtroom capable of
cracking up even the most hard-boiled prosecutors, he was a relentless
ferocious fighter for free speech.
(Continued on page 44)
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