Robert Shapiro

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
With Mario Lopez. What's up? You're all with Mario Lopez
in studio right now. Special guest, my good friend Mr
Robert Shapiro. How are you, buddy. I'm doing great, Mario.
It's so great to be with you outside of the
gym where it's less than ninety degrees exactly for those
of you not familiar, Mr Robert Shapiro obviously one of
the best attorneys ever. But at the same time, the

(00:24):
man's a beast, hangs out of the boxing gym, we've
sparred together, keeps himself in phenomenal shape and has lethal hands.
Was that just because of love and respect for the sport?
I don't think I've ever asked you, Bob, how did
the fascination? You know, it's very interesting. I never ever
liked exercising for the purpose of just exercising. And I

(00:44):
was a member the sports club years ago at Sports
Cube l A which is now Equinox, and they put
in a speedbag upstairs, and I said, you know, I
always thought that was cool. My dad used to take
me to Hollywood Legion Stadium for the fights in l A.
And we we always watched the fights. I actually listened
to the fights on the radio. And you know, then

(01:06):
they started a boxing class and they had six people
in the boxing class, three guys and three women, and
an ex marine fight are teaching it. The end of
the class, I was the last person there. Everybody else
had quit, and I talked to the teacher's name was
Jason Ross, and I said, Jason, you know what if
you just come train me and we agreed. I set

(01:28):
up a makeshift thing in my house and I trained
with him for a couple of years. And then there
was a fight between Michael Moore and Evander Holyfield, remember
that on the first one of the second one, first one, okay,
And it was the day of my son's bar Mitzvah,
and I got them to take a picture together with
my son. And then they came back to the wild

(01:50):
Card and I met Freddie Roach and I told him
about my interests. He said, why don't you come train
with me? And and that started my interest. And you know, since,
like you, we're serious about it. That's exactly We're not
in there just to work up a little sweat and
throw a few punches. I mean, we want to know

(02:10):
the technique, we want to know the strategy, and both
of us are lucky we get to hang out with
the pros. Yeah exactly, Now that is that is a
fun little benefit. But yeah, I can vouch Bob gets
in there, mixes it up and let's those hands go.
But um, you're doing a really cool thing that I'm
going to be hosting, um for essentially your son. Can

(02:31):
you talk a little bit about the foundation and what
and what it does for these great kids? So, Mario
in in two thousand five, as you know, our son Brent,
who was just the most wonderful kid. Uh, was a
drug addict and alcoholic. You've been through a couple of
rehabs and finally was on the road to sobriety, been

(02:52):
sober for eighteen months, was on the Dean's list at
USC for three semesters, and ready to go to law school.
And uh, he got invited to a party with his
new girlfriend. And it wasn't one of these crazy Hollywood parties.
It was like back to school on a school bus
at the Hollywood Legion Stadium in uh, in Hollywood, And

(03:17):
as I was told after the fact, he broke his sobriety.
And you know, we know today that drug disease is
a chronic disease. It's treatable, not curable, and recurring, and
it recurred with him to the degree that he took
two Yagermeister shots and then took a half of ecstasy,

(03:42):
got violently ill, started to projectile vomit. And this is
a normal situation today where somebody would simply call nine
one one, they go to the emergency room, they get
back into a rehabilitation program, and hopefully they'll be back
on the on the right track. Nobody called nine one one.

(04:04):
They didn't want us to know. So one of the
things we started was the Brand Shapiro Foundation for Alcohol
and Drug Awareness. Now the drug now it's called the
Brand Shapiro Foundation for Drug Prevention. But we wanted to
get the awareness out that you know, if there's a problem,
call nine one one. So we started something called Save

(04:25):
a Life, our Save a Life program and there are
simple cards which show you what the symptoms are when
somebody needs to get to the hospital, and it also
shows you something that we helped pass, and that's the
Good Samaritan Law. So if God forbid, somebody is sick
under the influence, even has drugs on them, and somebody's

(04:49):
going to take them to the hospital and has drugs,
nobody gets arrested. And so that now is saving more lives.
And if your listeners go to and Shapiro dot org, UH,
the same life card is there. We have children's books
starting at the age of five called Somo says No,

(05:09):
introducing kids immediately to what drugs and alcohol can do
to people long term. That's an awesome, awesome foundation because
I think everyone literally knows someone or somehow affected by
drug rock whol addiction. And the fact that you're raising
the awareness level and how to get help. So it
is a great thing. So happy to be a part
of it, Bob. And you know, I've so from there.

(05:32):
We're now at the point where not a day goes
by that you don't hear about the epidemic in America
with opiates, with heroin UH, And everybody is aware now.
So three and a half years ago we changed our
focus and we went to prevention. How do we prevent

(05:53):
this epidemic? Well, there's no way we're going to win
the war on drugs. It started in the nineteen fifties,
and we have as much chance of winning this war
as the war in Afghanistan. Just unfortunately, no matter how good.
Our agents are how much money we throw at it.
This is a demand problem, not a supply problem. And

(06:15):
so we said, what if we give kids rewards for
staying sober? What if we try this nobody's tried it
and and give them an incentive and change peer pressure
from just try it too. I'm not stupid. I'll never
try it. Because we know that if somebody uses drugs

(06:38):
before the age of fifteen, the likelihood of a lifelong
problem increases by five unbelievable scary statistics. And so we
we started Brent's Club in partnership with the Boys and
Girls Club of America, and we started on Cincinnati Avenue
in boil Heights, right in the part of gang Land

(07:01):
and drug dealers on every corner. We started with about
sixty kids. Programs started to be successful. It's grown to
kids there and Sam Gabriel and then people are saying, well,
that's in the underserved areas. Didn't you say this problem
is everywhere? And I said, yes it is. So we've

(07:22):
opened the club in Malibu and now we're going to
open up and announce on September our first partnership with
the NFL, with the New York Giants, sponsoring our biggest
club in the Bronx, New York. And and our goal
is simple. Uh, with people like you talking about this

(07:42):
and with a public now getting aware, we want to
put one of these clubs in every city that has
a professional sports franchise. Bravo. That's fantastic. That's fantastic. We
talk all the time and do spots on the opioid
epidemic and all this stuff. So that's great, wonderful thing
to be a part of. UM I said I wouldn't
ask you about the Simpson thing. I am not. I promised.

(08:05):
Here's it that you still very much practiced law. I
do you know? I have three passions in life, and
not necessarily in this order, boxing my practice of law,
primarily civil, and my business interests that now started with

(08:27):
legal zoom dot com, which has proven to be very
successful not only for us but for the public. Yeah,
you've got you guys are familiar with LegalZoom dot com.
He's also got a new one called Right Council. Right Council.
It's eight seven seven right eleven. And this is something interesting, Mario.

(08:48):
Even yesterday I get a call from a friend of
mine and Fresno. We were just in an accident, got hurt,
my new g wagon got destroyed. Can you help us?
And I said, I can't personally, but I will put
you in touch with the best lawyers. We're really doing

(09:09):
it locally now in Los Angeles and and more the
local area, but we're going to expand nationally. And so
if somebody is involved in a serious accident or suffered
uh the effects of a bad drug, rather than going
to a number on the back of a bus or
hearing an advertisement where somebody is selling uh territories to

(09:33):
other lawyers, these are hand picked lawyers that we know
are the people that God forbid you, or God forbidden
myself or one of my family members would need. They
get the best lawyers. It cost them nothing to contact us.
We go through the case, and we put them in

(09:54):
touch with the best lawyers period. He's like the attorneys.
Uh there, Bob, how did you become I've asked you this,
I think before a long time ago, But how did
you become the go to attorney for UM celebrities in
a certain clientele because he worked with a lot of
high profile guys. How does that happen? Because it's not

(10:15):
by accident? Is this sort of like high school where
just the popular kid attracts all the cool kids. You know,
that's a great question, And honestly, nobody's ever asked me
this publicly. Uh. I was in the d A's office
right after law school, and I wasn't the greatest student
in law school. But I had one thing, and that

(10:37):
was I had an ability to assimilate large amounts of
material very quickly and articulated and be persuasive. So I
won the Mood Court competition, became the Chief Justice of
the Mood Court and decided to become a trial lawyer.
And I never wanted to be a lawyer. In fact,
I think I'm going to write a book which says

(10:58):
I never wanted to be a lawyer? Would you want
to be? I wanted to be in business. I graduated
U c l A with a degree in finance and economics,
and so I was wanted to be in business, and
now fortunately I am in business. But they had no
graduate schools of business at U c l A. And
the war in Vietnam was looming, and the draft board

(11:23):
was right across the street, and I was one a
bit and ready to go. The only way to avoid
Vietnam where there are several ways. One you could burn
your draft card. Two you can move to Canada, Three
you could become a conscienti objector, or four you could
get a deferment by going to a graduate school. So

(11:43):
I started applying to law schools and I got accepted
at the last minute. I got the last seat in
the class at Loyola Law School, uh and and enrolled
and I found, you know, well, maybe I'll try this.
Became a Deputy District attorney with the l A District

(12:05):
Attorney's Office, tried cases for about two years, and went
into private practice. And the first case I get went.
I'm just out of the d a's office as I
get a call from Liza Minelli and I don't know,
lizamn Elli. Why is Liza Manelli calling me? Liza man

(12:27):
Ellie is calling me because her choreographer, David Winters just
got arrested in Las Vegas. How do I know David Winters?
His son and my son go to the same grammar school.
And I'm the only lawyer he knows that does criminal law.
Hand SLIZAMNELLI calling you, Okay, Liza Melly calls me, but

(12:47):
it's not really for David Winters. It's for Linda Lovelace
who got arrested with David Winners. Now, Linda Lovelace was
well known in America for one thing that became very
very public, and that is she was the first porno
star to actually have movies shown in legitimate theaters. And

(13:16):
the movie was called Deep Throat, so you can you
can look it up. It okay, okay, but she was
as recognizable as the President of the United States. Let
me turn this down, phone off. Uh So I get
on a plane and I and I fly to Las
Vegas and I meet Linda Lovelace and David Winter and

(13:40):
they tell me this story of how Sammy Davis Jr.
Wants to do a review with Linda Lovelace in Las Vegas.
This did not go over well with the people that
were running the hotels at that time in Las Vegas
that this was something far away from the image they

(14:02):
wanted to project. And Linda Lovelace and David Winners go
out for dinner one night, first night they're there, and
go to a nightclub. Everything is set up for him.
They come back and exactly one minute after midnight, the
Metropolitan Squad, which is the police squad of Las Vegas

(14:25):
rage their room with guns with more than ten officers,
everybody on the ground, and they arrest him for possession
for sale of cocaine. We I get involved, and I
need to find another lawyer in Las Vegas. So I

(14:46):
find the best lawyer there at the time, and the
two of us take this case. And it is the
first nationally publicized case in America. It's on the cover
of almost every newspaper in magazine. And you were young,
so young, and we win the case, of course you do,
and it just it just went from there and there

(15:08):
that wasn't the craziest case you hadn't And then you
were also you also handled Phil Specter, didn't you handle?
Only for a while. I didn't try Phil Specter's case,
but uh, the next Then in the seventies, there were
very stringent drug laws, even for marijuana. Marijuana was a felony,

(15:30):
and rock and rock and roll was everywhere, and the
people in rock and roll were getting arrested or having problems.
And I represented just about every major talent in the
world in the seventies on drug cases, which which pretty

(15:54):
much all of them, you know, everybody, you know. I
represented Billy Preston. Uh. I don't want to name a
lot of people because some of these have gone on now.
Shaka Khan, who is now sober represented her and a
lot of people who who are still around, but got

(16:15):
it not necessary to bring that up now. And after that,
the next big case in America was Christian Brando, right,
Marlon Brando's son. That's right, Marlon Brando's son. Was that
before or after he saved Michael Jackson's life. That was
before Michael Jackson, way before Michael Jackson. Uh. Christian was

(16:41):
one of two of Marlon Brando's children other than the
adopted kids, uh, which he had from basically from Tahiti
and one from London. Then later on he had several
other kids, supposedly with maybe housekeepers up. You won that
one too, right, That case you settled, We settled that case.

(17:05):
That case was a difficult case. Uh. Christian admitted to
the police that he shot his sister's boyfriend. His sister
was Cheyenne, one of the most gorgeous women ever, and
she reported that her boyfriend was beating her up, and
Christian said, let me look into this like Santino from

(17:27):
The God Fight, exactly right. And the case ended up
with this young man from Tahiti being on Marlon Brando's
couch and with a bullet through his head at point
blank range, and Christian admitted doing the shooting. It was

(17:51):
a difficult case, but but we believe that there were
certain defenses to this case that number one at Christian
was enraged that there was diminished capacity on his part,
and as a result we were able to settle it
for a manslaughter conviction UH and Christians served five years. Unfortunately,

(18:18):
Christian also had had an addiction problem, who certainly had
an alcohol problem, and he passed away working as a
welder up in northern California. He never wanted the limelight,
but one of the nicest people, humble, never wanted the
limelight at all, and unfortunately had a very very difficult

(18:44):
life to say the least. So by the time you
got the Simpson case, that was like nothing to you.
Then you've been on the you've been at the high
levels and used to the attention all for years. Yeah,
I had, h you know, been fortunate enough to to
get the cases that I wanted, and then in between those,

(19:04):
I got a case that I think to me was
the most important case I ever had, which was Flee
Bailey got arrested in San Francisco, and ef Lee Bailey
was the most famous lawyer in America. He had just
defended Patty Hurst about five years before, and people didn't

(19:25):
view his performance that well in the Patty Hurst case.
Especially Patty Hurst was very critical of him. And she
was convicted. Uh and went to prison. And uh. Mr
Bailey got arrested in San Francisco and he had the
choice of any lawyer in America to represent him, and

(19:47):
he asked myself and his partner Al Johnson to represent him.
The night before we start the trial, Al Johnson gets sick.
The case is the first nationally publicized trial in America.
It's the longest and most expensive drunk driving case ever.
Normally there are two, maybe three witnesses. In this case

(20:10):
there were forty and uh, just Mr Bailey was acquitted. Wow. Wow,
And drunk driving cases it usually was yeah, yeah, they're
they're a day. I mean, they're very simple. The arrest.
How long did it go on? It went on for
one week. Uh. Actually, at the the end some of

(20:33):
the juror the alternate jurors got too tired and they
were unavailable and one of the regular jurors couldn't do it,
So we were down from twelve jurors to eleven. And
it's much in our favor the more jurors. Yeah, it's
an unanimous verdict, and we decided to go with eleven
jurors and still got a knock guilty verdict. So that
one was was really important. And there was one thing

(20:56):
that is a pretty cool antidote. Uh. There there was
a reporter in San Francisco who wrote a daily column
and it was one of those like people in New
York read page six. People in San Francisco read the
chronicle and read his story, and he said, the uh,

(21:19):
the worry around San Francisco is f lee. Bailey got
acquitted and Patty Hurst Scott convicted. What's the difference. He
had a better lawyer. The end of the day, that's
all really the representation. And then you know, I got
other cases at the exact same time, on the exact

(21:40):
same date, Johnny Carson gets arrested in Beverly Hills for
drunk driving. Really Carson, Johnny Johnny Carson gets arrested right
in front of what is now the Beverly Center. It's
the borderline I would believe Ed McMahon. Yeah, so this

(22:00):
is the borderline between Beverly Hills and Los Angeles. He
gets stopped he's driving, and officer comes up and says,
you know, identification and registration, and he looks at him
and says, I'm Johnny Carson does that, and the cop,

(22:25):
the Beverly Hills cop, turns to his wife Joanne and says,
can you identify this man? And Johnny Carson says, you
ever see the Academy Awards? You ever see the Tonight
show with that squad? Cars come from both sides and
take Carson away in handcuffs. Unnecessary? Okay, next morning, No,

(22:47):
this is this is Friday, Monday morning, and then Bailey
gets arrested that same night. They both hire me. Monday evening.
Business is booming at that business. Okay. Monday night Carson
comes out on television, and Carson was the number one

(23:07):
rated show maybe maybe ever Okay, and he always came
out with a slogan I've got good news and bad news. Well,
on Monday night, he comes out with two guys dressed
as Beverly Hills cops that are about six ft five
in handcuffs and he comes out. He pretends to swing
a golf club. That's how he opens. Now he's swinging

(23:29):
the golf club in handcuffs, and he says, I've got
good news and bad news. He says, the bad news,
I was arrested for drunk driving on Friday night by
the Beverly Hills Police Department. The good news my lawyer's
eff Lee Bailey. Oh my god, which Mr Which Mr

(23:51):
Bailey didn't take kindly, very clever, very clever. Anyway, It's
a good question. Things I rarely talk about. But you
got me at a good moment today. I got you.
I got you at a good moment this listen. I
gotta I gotta ask you about because I just think
this is funny. John Travolta told me that he reached
out to you for his portrayal of you for the movie.

(24:13):
But you, in fact say that is not true. Okay,
I would have met with John Travolta in a second
number one. I think he has always been, uh, one
of the best actors around. When I heard he was
selected to play me, I didn't see any resemblance. You know,
neither neither did any of us. By the way, you

(24:35):
gotta think that's flattering though. I mean John Travolta, you know,
of course, but you know, I thought maybe Sean Penn,
you know, you know me, I've got somewhat of an edge,
you know, right, you got firing, you know. Yeah, I'm
a little different person. So I did watch part of
the first episode, and number one, the guy who wrote

(24:58):
the story, Jeff Tuben, is somebody that I don't get
along with, have never gotten along with. And one day
I will say why I don't get along with him?
But basically, I don't believe he had a lot of
integrity when he was covering the Simpson case, and he
admitted on television that most of this story was fictionalized

(25:18):
of what he thought took place. Uh. When I when
I saw it Travolta pretending to be me, I didn't
recognize myself at all, either in movements and action, in words,
or in any other way. And and everybody who knew
me called me and said, why is he doing these things?
And I said, I have no idea. So I didn't

(25:40):
aggravate myself and watch anymore. My wife did, and she
still aggravated to this minute. Uh, but uh, you know,
it's very interesting. That show was very well received. People
liked it. Uh, got lots of nominations and lots of awards.
And there were four major lawyers that were characterized in
that and and uh, of those four major lawyers and actors,

(26:04):
all got nominated for Golden Globes, and all got nominated
for Enemy Emmy Emmy's and all one except one person,
John Travolta. There you go. So I rest my case.
Yes you on that one. That's fantastic. That's fantastic. The
last thing, last thing, you remain topical, Rob Kardashian ironically, Uh,

(26:27):
now with his deal with China, will that get resolved?
Was that much ado about nothing? Bob? It seemed like
the silliest case with the social media and putting stuff
out there. It seems silly and unnecessary. You know, I
think that's a fair characterization, Mario. You know, I'm not
that in tune with social media or white people are
so interested in in these two people to begin with.

(26:53):
We're with guys. By the way, it's yes, that's all
I gotta say. As you were. Uh, you know, I
I talked to Rob and he's he's a very nice person,
and he wanted only one thing. What's best for his child,
and I think, uh, uh, China's hat her name, China China.

(27:16):
I never had heard of her, honestly, and when somebody
called me about her, Uh, I don't know what she does. Okay,
So I'm not alone now. And and and I said,
you know, look at uh, you're a father. He said,
you know, I only want what's best for my child.
And I said, okay, let's put this other stuff between

(27:37):
you and the mother behind us, and let's move forward.
What's in the best interests of your child. And you
guys are going to have to co parent and work
this out. And that's what we're doing. That's awesome. How
many interview requests do you get these days, Bob's to
talk about? I don't. I don't know. I mean, it's
just seems to be that the media has an insatiable

(28:03):
appetite for people who either have a social media presence
or cases that are ongoing, and so, uh, not a
day goes by that the majority of my messages are
not from the media, and uh, with rare exception, I
try not to comment on anything, uh whatsoever. And if

(28:25):
I do, I want to comment to everybody in the
media at the same time. And so with you, it's
a little different. We're friends, We've we've hung out forever
and been two fights together, been two shows together. Been yeah,
No I get beat up. Let's be honestly, no, Mario.
Mario is a real boxer, you know. I mean, I

(28:48):
try to do my best. But but you're you're, you're,
you can hold your own and do and you work
your ass off quite frankly. Uh. But you know the
thing that I mentioned, of all the things I do,
there's one thing and one thing that is my real
passion and that's the Branch Shapiro Foundation and coming up

(29:09):
with a solution for the epidemic of drug dependence Z disease.
It is a disease. People are now aware of it.
It's a disease that has no cure, but is treatable
and is recurring. So once people get that message disease,
treatable disease but not curable, recurring, you can understand what happens.

(29:35):
Fifty of people affected with this disease are afflicted based
on genetics. The rest are acquired and many are adults
acquired by taking painkillers. The biggest problem in America today.
And so with that, that's why I'm with you today,
and I'm so pleased that you're going to be hosting

(29:57):
our Summer Spectacular on sept Member the nine. Uh. We
have an unbelievable event. It's different than any other event.
We don't beat people over the head with a message.
It's going to be a fantastic event. We've got Demi
Levado as a special guest as well, and I'm looking
forward to hosting. And we're gonna put up all the
info about the foundation of the event itself at on

(30:20):
with Mario dot com. Bob, thank you so much for
one other thing. Yes, Sir David Lee Roth is going
to do his first ever performance at a private event.
Look at that. Might as well jump alright, see at
the gym, buddy, Okay, look forward to us with Mario Lopez.