Bloomberg Reviews our own Ed Hayes' Book

[doccol91]

By Thom Weidlich
Feb. 13 (Bloomberg) -- ``Counselor Hayes is what is known in
New York as a colorful character,'' writes novelist Tom Wolfe in
his introduction to Edward Hayes's memoir, ``Mouthpiece: A Life
in -- and Sometimes Just Outside -- the Law'' (Broadway Books,
304 pages, $24.95).
How many lawyers would include in their life story photos of
their tailors and handmade shoes? Clothes-horse Hayes says he
buys fabric in New York's Lower East Side and gets suits made on
London's Savile Row. That pretty much encapsulates the high- and
low-life journey he takes readers on in this engaging book,
written with journalist Susan Lehman.
The 58-year-old Hayes has two main claims to fame. He is
widely acknowledged as the model for Wolfe's defense attorney
Tommy Killian in ``Bonfire of the Vanities'' and was a pivotal
character in the legal drama surrounding Andy Warhol's estate.
Hayes grew up in Queens, New York, where he says his alcoholic father beat his mother. Hayes never shed the Queens
accent that turns ``law'' into ``lawr.'' At the University of
Virginia he wasn't a ``conscientious scholar,'' Hayes writes, yet
his involvement in school politics taught him the importance of
trading favors.
While at Columbia Law School, Hayes says he tended bar at an
Irish saloon with prostitutes as patrons and clerked at white-
shoe firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. He then worked as an
assistant district attorney handling homicide cases in the Bronx
during its violent Fort Apache era.

Nightclub World

Hayes describes getting to know New York's nightclub world
and how that crowd helped provide him with an income when he
entered private practice. He writes that women would hire him to
extricate their boyfriends from legal jams.
The lawyer and Wolfe met at a friend's summer house, Hayes
recounts, and when the writer wanted to use the Bronx County
Criminal Court in his first novel, Hayes was the perfect guide.
They've been friends since.

Up to this point, the book offers amusing vignettes but not
a lot of drama. That changes with Warhol's death in 1987, which
embroils Hayes in a legal dispute involving the artist's estate
and charitable foundation.
The artist's will established the Andy Warhol Foundation for
the Visual Arts. Through nightclub buddy Fred Hughes, executor of
the estate, Hayes was hired as its counsel. His fee was based on
the estate's value, which became the main bone of contention.

Valuation by Christie's

The foundation hired Christie's International Plc to make
the valuation, Hayes writes, and the auction house set it at $100
million. Hayes, relying on his own expert, said it was closer to
$700 million. The higher valuation meant higher fees for Hayes,
to which the foundation objected.
For the foundation, which was obliged by New York charities
law to distribute 5 percent of its holdings annually, the higher
valuation threatened to drain its budget.
Hayes writes that the foundation once had $25 million in
cash and securities and that by the end of 1991 it was down to $6 million. The foundation at the time said a chunk of its funds
went to cataloging the Warhol collection and to paying for the
legal dispute over Hayes's fees.
The battle came to a head in November 1993, when a hearing
was held on Hayes's fees. The judge split the difference between
the two sides, valuing Warhol's collection at $391 million.
She awarded Hayes a total of $7.2 million. He'd already been
paid $4.8 million. Then an appeals court halved Hayes's fee,
meaning that, instead of being paid a further $2.4 million, he
owed the foundation $1.2 million -- and he didn't have it. He had
given up his practice to work full-time on the Warhol estate. He
eventually filed for bankruptcy.

End of the Battle

The story is dramatic enough that I was disappointed when
Hayes, who had battled the foundation for so long, writes of
settling the matter by paying it $700,000 he managed to borrow.
In the end, he doesn't seem to have been too badly squeezed
by the episode: ``I emerged from Chapter 11 with 75 percent of my
assets.'' He has gone on to represent the families of police officers who died in the Sept. 11 tragedy in their effort to
expedite payments from the state. He also represents architect
Daniel Libeskind over fees owed for helping design the Freedom
Tower, the skyscraper being built at the site of the World Trade
Center. Will future scrapes lead to a sequel memoir?

--Editor: Burke (mvh/smw).

[Mark Seitelman]

Ed has graciously invited us to the book party on Wednesday, Feb. 15th. See the East Coast notes.

We all wish Ed the best, and I purchased three copies.

[Mark Seitelman]

The report of the book party is in the East Coast notes.

Ed's book will be reviewed in this weekend's NY Times Book Review.

I have started reading the book, and it's fabulous.

"Get me Hayes!" will be a rallying cry of all those in a spot of legal trouble, from the rich, the poor, the celebrated, the infamous, the forgotten, and the friendless.

[Incroyable]

Pity I am not in New York at that time of Mr.Hayes's party.

[Cantabrigian]

Ed has graciously invited us to the book party on Wednesday, Feb. 15th. See the East Coast notes.

We all wish Ed the best, and I purchased three copies.

I really ought to check those pages more often - wish I had known about the book party.

Sounds like a fascinating read - I can't wait to pick up a copy and devote a bit of the long weekend to it. Congratulations, Mr. Hayes.

[JMurphy]

Read it this week while on a ski vacation in BC with my family. If I had to choose one word to describe it I'd pick 'brave.' Somehow I did not know about the Hayes/Warhol connection even though I've been hearing about Eddie Hayes since (I think) reading about him in Richard Merkin's old GQ column--which should be issued in book form, I might add.

I, too, am a man of Irish heritage and of working class background and in my opinion I've 'made good,' albeit modestly. I, too, have skated on the edge of depression for much of my adult life (although my childhood couldn't have been more different) this book spoke to me in ways I can't describe. Highly recommended.

I hope your book does well for you and your co-author, Mr. Hayes. You should be proud.

[krustyjonez]

http://www.newyorker.com/printables/tal ... lk_collins

The sartorial section of the article:

Their first stop was H. Herzfeld, a haberdashery on East Fifty-seventh Street. Cutler was wearing a houndstooth suit over a midnight blue polo, collar up. Hayes, whose memoir, “Mouthpiece,” just came out, had a sharper look: worsted navy suit (“made by a wonderful young guy in England”), blue self-striped shirt (“E.W.H.” above the rib), suspenders (embellished with chess pieces), peach tie. He looked as if he hadn’t been sleeping well.

“I just have the blues and grays,” Cutler said. “Eddie has the flash and dash.”

“Eddie, do you like this for St. Patrick’s Day?” Cutler said, fingering a green tie with a hunting motif. “It’s something Teddy Roosevelt might wear.”

“Sure,” Hayes said. “I like the idea of a guy from Brooklyn wearing those Waspy ties.” A salesman boxed up the purchases. Cutler took his parcel, but Hayes said he’d send a boy to get his. A town car was idling outside, and Hayes got in. Cutler stood there.