The attorney has a subliminal of his own for Weezy.
Written by Foster Kamer (@weareyourfek)
Earlier this month, news broke that Lil Wayne was filing a lawsuit against the producers of the seminal rap documentary about Wayne, The Carter. In it, Wayne alleges that the makers of the documentary weren't authorized to use his music—in a documentary about Lil Wayne, made with Wayne's knowlege—and that they owe him money.
Yesterday, a video of one of the pre-trial depositions from the lawsuit leaked out. The video, filmed in June, went viral in a day. In it, an off-screen lawyer who represents one of the producers, Quincy Jones III, questions Weezy. Or rather, Lil Wayne questions the lawyer's intellect and safety.
For example:
LAWYER: Is that an interview that you actually gave to Katie Couric?
And later in the interview:
LAWYER: You have to wait until the end of the question.
So who is "Pete Ross," the man behind the questions, and moreover, the lawyer Lil Wayne ostensibly didn't threaten—but really: threatened—whose face viewers of the video never get to see?
That'd be one Peter Ross of Browne George Ross LLP, a Los Angeles-based law firm. And what does he have to say about Wayne's witness-stylings?
On Wednesday afternoon, Complex reached Ross, who explained to us:
"I cannot comment about this case, which is scheduled to go to trial on October 9. We are, however, looking forward to presenting our claims to a jury."
Ross—who graduated from Carleton College magna cum laude in 1980, Stanford Law School in 1983, is admitted to the California bar, the California Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and U.S. District Court—is the lawyer representing the film's producers, and the one questioning Wayne in the video. He's won over $200 million in verdicts from his various clients and according to his firm's website, has a 90% success rate in court.
As for this case, well, he's lectured on trademark protections in front of the California Bar, so he's got that going for him, too. (His law partner Allan Browne was also featured in a paper titled The Delicate Art of Cross Examination, though this may not fall under "delicate.")
The producers of the film Ross represents had previously been sued by Wayne over the film portraying him in a manner that wasn't to his liking (e.g. with a giant Vitamin Water-bottle filled with codeine syrup in the first 15 minutes). That suit was thrown out over three years ago.
Wayne wasn't in a courtroom—he was being deposed in an office, not in a court of law—but if he was, he might want to familiarize himself with "contempt of court" laws, specifically California Penal Code 166, which explicitly prohibits:
(1) Disorderly, contemptuous, or insolent behavior committed during the sitting of any court of justice, in the immediate view and presence of the court, and directly tending to interrupt its proceedings or to impair the respect due to its authority.
(2) Behavior as specified in paragraph (1) committed in the presence of any referee, while actually engaged in any trial or hearing, pursuant to the order of any court, or in the presence of any jury while actually sitting for the trial of a cause, or upon any inquest or other proceedings authorized by law.
Knowing what type of behavior he can and cannot display in court should help, especially since this is, after all, Wayne's lawsuit.
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