It is not often a lawyer is required to ask the question ‘what’s my motivation here?’. Enter stage right Weil Gotshal & Manges, which recently branched out into the rather kooky world of performance art.
A rather reluctant associate James Harvey was volunteered by Serpentine Gallery patron and Weil partner Marco Compagnoni to take part in a piece of performance art with artist Tris Vonna Mitchell.
“As you can imagine people were not keen to volunteer themselves,” admits Harvey. “I only popped out for a sandwich. When I got back I was told I’d be performing on stage to 250 people in a few weeks’ time.” With a degree of trepidation the associate went along to the gallery earlier this month (13 October) to provide on-stage legal advice to Vonna Mitchell, who regaled the audience with a story of theft and deception from his studio as part of a live art installation.
“Although I was nervous, it wasn’t as bad as I first thought it would be,” Harvey says. “Initially Marco almost convinced me that I would be performing naked.”
