Joe Escalante feature
Title:
Loyola's Punk Rock Alum
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Joe Escalante [JD '92] is the longtime bass player in the punk rock band, The Vandals. He's also worked as a corporate attorney. Now he dispenses free legal advice, live on the radio.
Feature:
Since 1985, Joe Escalante [JD '92] has been the bass player (and previously, the drummer) of The Vandals, a venerable and much-beloved punk rock band.
Along the way, Escalante has done a little bullfighting down in Mexico. And he's worked the north-of-the-border equivalent, putting his Loyola Law School degree to use as a corporate entertainment lawyer.
Escalante also owns and runs a music label, Kung Fu Records.
And these days, the Los Angelino is a year or so into his latest vocation: major-market radio disc jockey. Escalante is the creator and host of "Barely Legal Radio," a smart, wry, idealistic, and idiosyncratic hour-long legal advice program that broadcasts in Los Angeles on "Indie 103" – 103.1 FM – Friday mornings at 11. The program is also available online.
Callers inquire about topics such as music publishing disputes, licensing issues, intra-band squabbles, and other entertainment industry quandaries.
"I'm helping people that are trying to help themselves. And most of them are trying to do it without expensive attorneys, trying to learn on their own.”
Escalante has recently been substitute hosting the station’s morning-drive time slot. That means four or five hours daily of music and talk from this true Lion of the airwaves; this punker whose band gigs for the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan; this churchgoer who named his radio show after a Larry Flynt–published magazine.
"People usually have trouble figuring me out," Escalante says. "I'm still very Catholic. I go to daily mass a lot. [With the legal show], I'm trying to keep people from litigation and trying to focus on the benefits on being creative, and not get wrapped up in, 'How can I make money or be famous?' or, 'Can I take advantage of someone just because its legally possible?' To me, it all goes together pretty well."
Sort of like Escalante’s family and a certain West L.A. university. Escalante is one of six close relations with connections to LMU or Loyola Law School. The list includes his father – who dropped out to raise Escalante and his siblings – two sisters, a stepbrother, and currently, a nephew.
"No one in my family has any regrets," Escalante says. "Our dad…he just encouraged all of us kids to think about Loyola. For him there was no other law school."