The Marin Lawyer recently sat down with MCBA board member Greg Brockbank to discuss his legal career, life in Marin and turning a Supreme Court opinion into a play.

What is your practice area?
I started with landlord/tenant — I will represent either one — and civil litigation. Sixteen years ago, when I joined Marin Law Center, and ultimately bought it, I added family law (divorces) and living trust packages.

Do you have a particular emphasis?
I really try to keep costs down for clients, with relatively low hourly rates, efficient work, and light billing, but I always have to explain to new clients when they call or email that, despite the name of my firm, we are not a clinic or nonprofit organization, and are in fact a private law firm. I try to help them resolve their case themselves -- including referring them to Nolo Press books, legal websites, Legal Aid of Marin, the Legal Self-Help Center, or Small Claims Court -- rather than hiring me, in order to save them money, as many or most of my clients are pretty low-income (especially tenants and many divorcing parties).

Why did you decide to become a lawyer?
It wasn’t really because I argued so much as a kid that my parents said I should become a lawyer. Actually, I started out in college as a math major, and then my first “career,” albeit brief, was in theatre, although I never really earned any money at it. After a degree in Theater Arts, two years of graduate work, and a year in NYC, I came back to Marin and always say I took a “tragic career turn” and went to law school. Truthfully, the intellectual aspect of it appealed to me, as well as the problem-solving, and the opportunity for public service. The money sounded good in theory, but as a 32-year sole practitioner now, I’m still waiting for that part.

What is the best thing about being a lawyer?
I like the first consultation, when I try to be very efficient in sharing knowledge from my 32 years of practice; I answer the client’s questions, weigh the pros and cons of various approaches, and try to make it as easy as possible for the client to get the business over and done with. Often, I can settle a case with a call or two to the other side. And I’ve always liked being self-employed.

Why do you live in Marin?
I moved here with my family from Chicago when I was 11 years old, and I’ve never wanted to be anywhere else. Why would anyone?

What do you love to do when you’re not busy practicing law?
Besides singing and dancing in musical comedies, which I’ve resumed doing here in community theaters in recent years, I’ve always been active in Democratic politics. I’ve been on the Democratic Central Committee of Marin for the past 32 years and was the chair a few years ago. I’ve served on several dozen civic and political boards — advocating for low-income housing, for the environment, for election integrity, and for single-payer health care, among others. I spent 22 years as an elected official on the College of Marin Board of Trustees, and then the San Rafael City Council.

Tell us about your family.
Two children, ages 31 and 32, both of whom became teachers and both of whom now live in Santa Rosa. Two grandsons, one six months old and the other age two. I live in San Rafael with my wife, Esther Wanning, who is a psychotherapist, a writer, and like me, a political activist. For 20 years, she led the charge in Marin for a single-payer health care system.

If you could pursue any other career besides law, what would it be and why?
Singer and/or actor. But barring those, or being a full-time paid politician, I sometimes think I would have enjoyed a career in public administration.

Why did you join MCBA?
Truthfully, it never occurred to me NOT to join. Because I went solo immediately upon passing the bar, I joined as soon as I started my practice.

If you had to pick a single highlight of your career, what would it be?
Several years ago, I did a jury trial, representing a tenant facing eviction, up against a top landlord attorney. Jury trials are extremely rare in eviction cases, and this one was pretty complex, yet after the landlord’s case was presented, I moved for and won a directed verdict for my client.

What hard lessons have you learned practicing law that spill over into your former role as a city councilmember? What hard lessons have you learned as a city councilmember that spill over into the practice of law?
Of course listening is a crucial skill in both areas (maybe all areas), and I like to think I do well in that area, although my wife would undoubtedly give a dissenting opinion. Practicing law involves giving individual people (in my case) advice or representation, based on their facts, and the law, but the client is usually the ultimate decision-maker. Serving in any public office involves being responsive to members of the public, individually and/or collectively, but the office-holder is the ultimate decision-maker. In both cases, being clear, articulate, and sincere are important skills. And while clients need to have confidence in you as an attorney, so does the public in serving as an office-holder. A client can fire you (or an attorney can resign), and as an office-holder, the public can defeat you for re-election, or you can resign or decline to run for re-election.

What were 3 recent books you read for pleasure?
My wife would say I don’t read any books, but that isn’t quite true, although I do spend far more time reading newspapers and emails. In recent years, I’ve read a few murder mysteries (including a political one), and some political books.

Favorite legal flick?
Probably that old chestnut, The Verdict, with Paul Newman. Even a mess of an attorney can pull himself together and draw on some legal skills to win a big victory, even winning over a judge who didn’t much respect him. I have also enjoyed a few TV series about the law, on those rare occasions I watch TV, but I find both legal movies and TV series to be shockingly unrealistic in that they seem to think someone can start preparing for trial the day before the trial, and they condense what might be hours or even days of testimony into a few minutes.

Favorite type of food?
I like food in general, as long as it’s vegetarian, preferably vegan. I used to love primarily Italian food, and still do, but my wife has “refined” my palate considerably, and I now also enjoy Thai, Indian, and Mexican food, among others.

Go-to drink for those special occasions?
Not having drunk any alcohol for nearly 20 years, I guess I’d have to say a non-alcoholic beer, which I drink a few of each week. And lots of lemonade.

Best way to unwind?
For me, although most would probably shudder, it’s performing in musical comedies. Next up: Daddy Warbucks in Annie, a great role in a great show with three great songs, even though personally I’m the opposite of a billionaire Republican industrialist. The first two weekends in May at the Playhouse in San Anselmo.

What supreme court opinion would make a great short play?
Although I really enjoy most of the MCBA membership lunch programs, my favorite in recent years, for political as well as legal reasons, has been Hastings Prof. Rory Little talking about the recent US Supreme Court opinions, and speculating on the big ones about to come out in the final week. One of those from a few years ago, Citizens United, further increased the already too-large influence of anonymous big money donations and excessive corporate influence in politics, a subject near and dear to my heart, and for which I ran two countywide political campaigns in Marin in the past couple decades to get some form of publicly financed elections statewide. So I think that subject might make a good dramatic presentation, and in fact I had a brief conversation recently with fellow MCBA Board Member Christian Martinez about doing such a thing together. You could do great things with Citizens United. Think of all the greedy corporate profiteers throwing huge wads of dough around and our supposed public servants doing their bidding.