Law Career Yields Passport to Berlin

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This New Year’s was one to remember for entertainment executive Steve Nissen.

He and his family spent the holiday in Berlin with U.S. Ambassador to Germany John Emerson, both at his residence in the city and partying at the U.S. Embassy overlooking the famed Brandenburg Gate.

Nissen and Emerson have been friends for nearly 40 years, ever since they started as first-year lawyers at West L.A. law firm Manatt Phelps & Phillips. Nissen, now 64, is senior vice president of legal and government affairs at NBC Universal in Universal City. Emerson, 61, served in the Clinton administration and then had a long career at L.A. investment firm Capital Group Cos. before President Barack Obama named him ambassador to Germany in August 2013.

Nissen spent months last year trying to coordinate a visit with Emerson; New Year’s worked best. So that’s how Nissen found himself amid about 40 guests at the U.S. Embassy on New Year’s Eve, with a formal dinner followed by a bird’s-eye viewing of fireworks and a megaconcert at the nearby Brandenburg Gate.

“It was a great mash-up of people at the party,” Nissen said. “There were German army folks, U.S. State Department folks, the editor of the largest circulation news publication Bild, a couple of human rights activists working with Syrian and Afghan refugees, executives from German companies and famous personalities.”

But the most memorable aspect for Nissen was the food and drink.

“By far, the best food we had during our week in Germany,” he said. “And the wine was fit for a queen.”

Literally. The same wine was served to Britain’s Queen Elizabeth on a state visit in June.

Still Banking on Baton

Banker Jonathan Weedman doesn’t just have a talent for numbers – but for music, too.

That’s because the senior vice president at Wells Fargo is also a trained conductor.

“I had studied to be a concert pianist and symphonic conductor. That was my avocation, but I needed a job,” said Weedman, 56, who’s been with the bank for 26 years and heads the Wells Fargo Foundation for the greater L.A. region from the bank’s downtown L.A. office.

But sometimes his passion for performing music actually mixes with his work.

Weedman has helped handle Wells Fargo’s donations to the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles, and when the musical group discovered that he also conducts – after watching Weedman lead the Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles at Walt Disney Concert Hall – the chorus invited him to conduct a piece at its holiday concert last month.

“It is intimidating to be standing in front of 300 highly accomplished, highly skilled trained performers and to have to lead them in a piece,” Weedman admitted. “It’s not just about waving your arms around. It’s about tempo, dynamics, cueing, keeping them all together, looking at them and setting the emotion for the piece. It’s harder than you think.”

Still, Weedman, clad in a black suit and plaid red bowtie, looked utterly composed when leading the chorus in “Carol of the Bells” at Glendale’s Alex Theatre.

“It was a real honor,” he said, adding that he’s been invited to return next year.

Staff reporters Howard Fine and Marni Usheroff contributed to this column.
Page 3 is compiled by Editor Charles Crumpley. He can be reached at ccrumpley@
labusinessjournal.com.

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