60 SPRING 2006

Lifestyle COLLECTORS

Ten years ago, Adam Dawson,head of the construction group

at Farel la Braun + Martel LLP,represented Bass Ale in relation toits purchase of Holiday Inns. Hetraveled to thirty-s ix c it ies insixteen months, logging 210,000miles of air travel. He landed insome obscure places, including theremote intersection of Arkansas,Louisiana, and Texas.

“I realized I needed to have some sortof symbol, a record of all of the places Iwas going,” Dawson says. A shot glasscollection was born.

Why shot glasses? “You can get themin airports. They’re small and easy,” heexplains. “It became a quest, especiallywhen I went to smaller towns likeBeaumont, Texas.”

What’s Your

Fancy?

Attorneys CollectSHOT GLASSES,

SOUNDTRACKS, and PENGUINS

Leslie A. Gordon

Adam Dawson with some of the shot glasses he has been collecting for more than ten years.

PH

OT

OS

BY

Jim

Blo

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THE BAR ASSOCIATION OF SAN FRANCISCO SAN FRANCISCO ATTORNEY 61

Lifestyle COLLECTORS

The day after the Bass Ale case settled, his daughter was born. “Ilook at these [shot glasses] and I have a story to tell my ten-year-olddaughter,” says Dawson, who also serves as Farella’s hiring partner.

Colleagues and friends, who’ve brought them from as faraway as Italy and Mexico, have added glasses to the collection,which now numbers sixty-five. Dawson’s favorites are thosethat were hardest to find. “Amarillo, Texas, is a favorite.”

The collection has become a conversation piece. “I start out witha disclaimer than I’m not a raging alcoholic,” Dawson quips. Theglasses are housed on shelves in his office, collecting dust, not yeta drop of alcohol. “Upon my retirement, I want to come in herewith a jug of whiskey and get my partners together.”

Dawson is not alone in his collection. With a penchant for notdoing anything halfway, lawyers are often vigorous collectors.

“There are two types of people in this world: those who collectand those who don’t,” explains Fred Lowell, chair of PillsburyWinthrop Shaw Pittman LLP’s political law practice and amember of the former category. Along with American stampsand political memorabilia, Lowell has collected more than athousand LPs of movie soundtracks. He bought his first record,the soundtrack from Exodus, in 1960. “It had a popular song,and I was curious about the whole score. It grew from there.”

His favorites albums include soundtracks composed by MiklosRozsa, who wrote the scores for Ben-Hur and El Cid. He alsolikes John Barry, who composed music for Out of Africa and theJames Bond movies. Through his years of collecting, Lowell hasfound that terrible movies—such as Taras Bulba with YulBrynner—often feature exquisite music. “It’s a miracle when themusic goes well with the movie but can also stand on its own.”

The most Lowell ever paid for a record was $4,000 for a rare1964 soundtrack of the Caine Mutiny by Max Steiner. “The

cover was great, but the record skipped,” he says. Lowell soldthe record a month later for $5,000 to a man who drove downfrom Oregon to get it. That experience aside, collectingrecords is fun, “not a financial thing for me,” he says.

Collecting, according to Gary Hernandez, chair of Sonnen-schein Nath & Rosenthal LLP’s insurance regulatory practice,offers “a natural diversion from our day-to-day work. It’s a wayto escape your work life and focus on something else.”

For his part, Hernandez collects items related to penguins,including everything from a picture of penguins at the LondonZoo to a painting of penguins made by grade-school kids tocrystal penguins, stuffed animals, cookie jars, and windup toys.

It started twenty years ago when Hernandez visited the SanFrancisco Zoo and stumbled upon Penguin Island. For thefirst time, he noticed that penguins are “incredible creatures,”he recalls. “They’re incredibly graceful when swimming, butawkward and clumsy out of the water. They’re funny to lookat but also soothing and calming when underwater.”

Hernandez, who has penguin items in his office and athome, cites the dictionary definition of penguins as “short-legged, flightless aquatic birds.” He quips, “I’m sure I have apersonal affinity because that also applies to me.”

Hernandez flies a hundred thousand miles a year for workand often picks up penguin items during his travels. Althoughhis collection has turned into a conversation piece, it wasprimarily meant to be simply a source of personal joy.

“If I need a thirty-second time-out while working,”Hernandez says, “I look up and smile when I see the penguins.”

Fred Lowell shows off some of his collection of soundtrack albums.

Gary Hernandez, who says he has a personal affinity for the creatures, displays some of hiscollection of penguins.