In Memoriam
(1940-2022)
Paul H. Epstein, a former Consultant with the firm of Artsmart, Inc., which he founded, devoted his career to improving the situation of artists, creators, arts groups and arts presenters. He worked with them to optimize their “branding” and on “positioning” themselves for success. His team of colleagues is prepared to do everything from design a logo that properly reflects the brand to run a full-scale opera company.
He was most comfortable with composers and dancers, and part-year festivals of their work. Born in south Brooklyn in 1940, he attended local schools until he went off to Harvard, which he found so congenial that he read there for eight years and received three degrees. He took up the law, wondering always what he was intended to be.
After 35 years at Proskauer Rose, most of them as a partner in its Corporate Department, working with Leonard Bernstein, George Balanchine and other such geniuses, he learned what he was intended to be.
In his first years at Proskauer, he founded Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts and served as the Chairman of its Board for seven years. Paul’s lifelong commitment to providing pro bono legal services for artists created the foundation upon which VLA was built. Even after leaving Proskauer altogether, Paul devoted some combination of his professional and pro bono interest to working for organizations like the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music.