July 6, 1967 – July 29, 2023

David A. Pierce was only a boy when he started to admire the facility of the legislation.

His father, Malcolm “Mac” Pierce, a longtime Niagara Falls tourism entrepreneur, had misplaced his concession contract to run the Cave of the Winds excursions on Goat Island in a questionable bidding course of. He sued the State of New York and received it again.

“At 10 years old,” Mr. Pierce advised an interviewer, “that case showed me the importance of our legal system.”

A outstanding leisure legal professional in Los Angeles, he died July 29 in Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, a 12 months after he was recognized with liver most cancers. He was 56.

Born in Lewiston, the youngest of 4 youngsters, David Albert Pierce was a 1985 graduate of Lewiston-Porter High School and acquired a bachelor’s diploma with honors in political science and enterprise from Binghamton University.

He earned his juris physician diploma from Cornell University Law School with a focus in enterprise legislation and regulation. While in school, he was an intern on the Washington, D.C., workplace of Rep. Jack Kemp.

After passing the California bar examination, he served 4 years as an affiliate legal professional within the Los Angeles workplace of the nationwide agency Fisher & Phillips, the place he turned well-versed in employment legislation.

In 1996, he established a boutique follow, Pierce Law Group LLP, in Beverly Hills. A fan of stand-up comedians – he aspired to be one himself – he joined the Friars Club, a gathering place for actors and comics, and it launched him to certainly one of his most well-known purchasers.

At lunch there someday with a buddy, Mr. Pierce noticed Milton Berle, who based the membership, and went to his desk to greet him. It led to Berle’s longtime lawyer, Paul Schriebman, turning into his mentor, and he went on to turn out to be Berle’s legal professional.

Another main consumer was the Comedy Store in West Hollywood, a number one showcase for comics, the place he began serving as common counsel within the early 2000s.

“David Pierce was a huge part of our family,” the Comedy Store stated in a submit on Instagram after his loss of life. “He was passionate, talkative and fought for his clients like he was fighting for himself. We will miss his stories, his smile and him wandering our halls, making sure he didn’t miss any of the comics (or his order of chicken tenders).”

His purchasers additionally included Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Productions and the producers of the Oscar-winning 2011 French movie, “The Artist.” One of his notable instances concerned successful the dismissal of a defamation lawsuit filed by Kenny Kramer, the inspiration for the Cosmo Kramer character on the TV comedy “Seinfeld,” in opposition to one of many writers on the present.

“It’s indicative of the cases I enjoy being a part of,” he advised an interviewer for the web site LawCrossing.com. “I don’t take cases unless my clients have been treated unjustly in some way – either someone has genuinely hurt them or they have been wrongfully bullied by a plaintiff without a case.”

He additionally labored with impartial filmmakers, producers, artists and lots of stand-up comedians. He usually supplied touring comics the usage of his condominium.

He was listed amongst Southern California TremendousLawyers from 2015 to 2017, was admitted to follow earlier than the U.S. Supreme Court and had been a member of the Order of Distinguished Attorneys on the Beverly Hills Bar Association since 2003.

Beginning in 1998, he was an adjunct lecturer at UCLA Extension on “Organizing, Financing and Running a Start-Up Entertainment Production Company.” He recurrently spoke at movie festivals and seminars world wide.

“I would never want to give up representing individuals who recently graduated from film school,” he stated in LawCrossing.com. “That’s often where some of the most rewarding legal counseling occurs.”

He chaired the Entertainment Law Section of the Beverly Hills Bar Association and was a board member of the Friars Club and the Los Angeles chapter of the Leukemia Lymphoma Society. He had been an everyday authorized columnist for Movie Maker journal since 2003.

He yearly visited Camp Seneca Lake, a Jewish in a single day camp close to Rochester, the place he had been a camper and a counselor. He was a canine lover and an avid Buffalo Bills fan, internet hosting viewing events throughout their video games.

He had married Eliane Vieira Gomes in Israel two months earlier than his loss of life. Survivors additionally embrace his mom, Beverly Glaser Pierce; two sisters, Jamie Albright and Alyse Brovitz; and a brother, Jeffrey.

A funeral service was held Aug. 6 in Mesnekoff Funeral Home, East Amherst. The Comedy Store will host a celebration of his life in October.