HE IS: A Detroit-based lawyer with a creative vision. Now those are two concepts you don’t often find in the same sentence—but for Simpson, it was a winning combination. “When I got out of law school, I worked for a small defense firm,” he recalls. “But my stomach would always bother me at the office, so I asked my doctor about it and he said it sounded like stress.” That’s all Simpson needed to hear. He quit the firm that same week and went into business for himself.FOR THE RECORD: Having always been drawn to the entertainment industry, Simpson launched a dance music label called Simply Soul.“Detroit is home to electronic and techno music, and a lot of the guys who started that type of music were friends and, ultimately, clients of mine,” he says. They included Kevin Saunderson, Derrick May, and Juan Atkins, all heavily associated with the birth of Detroit techno. “I was the guy with the degree, so I became the lawyer for the group.”
BELLY UP TO THE BAR: In 2000, Simpson also opened Half Past 3, a casually elegant downtown bar and lounge with a laid-back R&B/hip-hop vibe that attracted A-listers and locals alike before closing in 2007.“We had everyone from Gabrielle Union to Puffy to Cedric the Entertainer come through,” he says. Allen Iverson was a regular who, Simpson claims, would come into the bar whenever his team, the Philadelphia 76ers, played the Detroit Pistons. Simpson says he’d come both before and after the games, sometimes staying until the wee hours of the morning.
LAW AND ORDER: After almost two decades in entertainment, Simpson has shifted his focus back to traditional law: In 2009, with two former colleagues, he established Simpson, Morton & Cross. The “progressive” practice approaches clients in inclusive and fresh ways to meet their needs in an ever-changing social climate. “Our firm is sophisticated enough to handle corporate clients, but grounded enough to serve the everyday man,” Simpson says. Jury dismissed.
via Uptown Mag