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28 JESUIT PERSPECTIVES • SPRING 2020
The music industry's
super lawyer
Jesuit High School has
produced hundreds of
accomplished lawyers, but
few, if any, have worked as
many noteworthy cases as
Paul LiCalsi ’68.
Currently a partner at
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LiCalsi has practiced law
in New York City for more
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than 40 years, specializing in music, entertainment, and
media litigation. His client list includes an incredible array
of world-renowned artists, including The Beatles (yes, The
Beatles), Elton John, Taylor Swift, and Cardi B.
LiCalsi’s climb to the top of the music industry began with a
leap of faith.
After graduating from Yale University in 1972, LiCalsi
pursued a career in politics. He spent a year in Washington
D.C. on the legislative staff of Florida representative Sam
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senator Lawton Chiles.
He left politics to attend law school at Duke University,
and moved to New York City the summer after graduation
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Donovan, Leisure, Newton & Irvine.
Which is when the leap of faith happened. Despite establishing
himself at the Wall Street institution, LiCalsi decided
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Marks.
“(Gold Farrell & Marks) was all lawyers who had left
Wall Street practices, and we put together a great kind of
litigation,” LiCalsi said. “It was like a little commando.”
One of the senior partners at Gold Farrell & Marks worked
with entertainment lawyer John Eastman representing the
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group win a lawsuit against their former manager. That big
victory led Eastman to recommend Gold Farrell & Marks to
another one of his clients – Paul McCartney.
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company, Apple Corps Limited, against EMI/Capitol Records
over an alleged underpayment equating to more than 10
million British pounds. In 1983, Gold Farrell & Marks took
over The Beatles’ lawsuit.
“Over the next several years, we continued with that
lawsuit and several other lawsuits related to it,” LiCalsi said.
“The whole thing ended with a universal settlement in 1989.
So, it was epic litigation.”
LiCalsi left Gold Farrell & Marks in 1999, but The Beatles and
Apple Corps Limited have followed him as a client to each of
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represent the band he had watched explode onto the scene
on The Ed Sullivan Show as a teenager, and then become the
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In the early 18th century, a
Jesuit priest, Fr. Domenico
Zipoli, S.J., was the
leading Italian organist and
composer of the Baroque
period. A missionary in
South America for a decade,
many of his works were
more recently discovered
there, and his profound
influence on music in many
areas of the continent is
evident to this day. Some
300 years later, Jesuit High
School alumni are carrying
on Fr. Zipoli’s musical
heritage, developing a
distinguished legacy for the
school in the modern music
industry, one that spans
generations and crosses
genres. From attorneys and
historians to producers and
writers, from entrepreneurs
and managers to
sound engineers and
songwriters, from DJs and
instrumentalists to rock
bands and solo artists,
Jesuit alumni are making a
broad and lasting imprint
through their passion and
talent for music and related
fields. Over the next eight
pages many alumni in
music are profiled, including
historian Andre Torres ’87,
singer/songwriter Chris
Watson ’08, businessman
Evan Rubinson ’10,
and producer Tariq
Sharrieff ’12.