A Legendary Reason

My name is Oluwaseun Adeyemi. My father is Nigerian and my mother is African American. I was born in Oakland, California but later moved to an affluential neighborhood in Green Valley (Fairfield), California. I have one brother and one sister. I also have a bonus sister who is my first cousin, my parents legally adopter her when I was 15 years old. I saw the legal system at a very early age. My brother suffered from mental illness and as a result, was arrested several times throughout my childhood. I recall visiting him in jails and mental health facilities for most of my life. Not one time did he ever have effective legal counsel. This was my first glimpse of how the law fails people. I never understood why mentally ill were incarcerated instead of hospitalized.

Moving on to my teenage years, when my parents adopted my sister Salewa from Nigeria it was the same year both of her parents died. My older sister and I were forced to meet with lawyers, social workers and court staff to be assessed for "fitness." When all of her paperwork was complete and she moved to the United States I finally saw how the law can be used to accomplish good.

Seeing both the good and bad aspects of the law is a trend that repeated throughout my adult life. My first job out of law school was in mass tort litigation working a case called Granuflo. The creators of a dialysis concentrate used during treatment, knowingly killed hundreds of thousands of colored persons in the southern states. An internal memo from 2012 showed the executives had knowledge that the dialysis concentrate was causing heart attack deaths. However, the profit margins for the concentrate were so high they continued to administer the granuflo up until 2017. After settling these cases for millions of dollars I was fired by my caucasian employer (without the bonus I was promised). It left a sour taste in my mouth so I moved on to an African American/Latin firm. However, this attorney was literally stealing her client's money. She would settle cases and then keep the proceeds without giving the clients their share. It was after witnessing these atrocities that I decided to go independent. If I was going to be put in compromising ethical situations it should be my own doing.

When I first started out as a solo practitioner I turned down dozens of clients simply because they could not pay. The ones that resonate with me were the battered women seeking refuge and the Hispanic persons who's land was taken by the government for (gentrification purposes) without receiving payment. I never kept those peoples contact information so I started a non-profit to provide free legal assistance for those who meet our guidelines. No one else will be turned away.

Lastly, I opened the Entertainment company to free the creative. I was fortunate to review major label contracts during my legal career. I used to just read and clean them up. Then one day it hit me; the contracts are modern slavery. The companies trademark the artist's name and own the artist in perpetuity. The language is so complex a layperson would not understand and it has a non-compete provision that binds the artist from performing all works for up to seven years post-termination of the agreement. HOW WILL THEY FEED THEIR FAMILY? was my thought. Creatives just need funding, organization, structure, legal advice and a team. We provide these services to the persons signed to our entertainment company.

All of the companies stem from me taking a chance on going into business for myself. It began with Legendary Law Group PLLC (law firm). Then it grew into Legendary Legal Service Inc. (non-profit) and lastly Legendary Entertainment Group (subsidiary for creatives).