Eric Greif

Eric Greif (born 1962) is a lawyer and entertainment personality known first for a management career within the heavy metal musical genre in the 1980s and later within the legal profession. He is the nephew of American writer and publisher Martin Greif. [ [http://gayfortoday.blogspot.com/2007/02/martin-greif.html GfT, February 04, 2008] , retrieved August 20,2008]

Youth

Greif was teen columnist with Southam News daily Calgary Herald but, wanting to be "where all the record labels were", left when he turned 18 for Los Angeles.cite web | url = http://www.sleazeroxx.com/interviews/greif.shtml | title = Eric Greif interview | work = "Sleaze Roxx" | date = 2007-04-28 ] He attended the University of Sound Arts in Hollywood studying to become a recording engineer but soon switched to production when it was suggested to him by mentor Ron Fair.

Entertainment career

Greif's first production work was with the Greg Leon Invasion, who he met after a show at The Troubadour and later managed. [ [http://www.sleazeroxx.com/interviews/leon.shtml Greg Leon interview] ] Greg Leon subsequently introduced Greif to Tommy Lee, whom Leon had played in a band with, and this led to Greif's management work with Mötley Crüe. ["Motley Crue: Rock And Roll's Bad Boys", www.squidoo.com/Motley-Crue, retrieved August 20, 2008] Among his arrangements was Mötley Crüe's eventful 1982 tour of Canada.

By the mid 1980s, Greenworld Distribution, who had worked with Greif on the marketing and distribution of Mötley Crüe's first album "Too Fast for Love", [ [http://www.motleymuseum.com/tffl_leathur_id.htm "Too Fast for Love", motleymuseum.com] , retrieved August 20, 2008] had signed contracts with the vast majority of bands Greif brought to them, including Kansas City's Vyper, [ [http://www.tartareandesire.com/bands/Vyper/1934/ "Vyper Band Page", Tartarean Desire] , retrieved August 20, 2008] [ [http://www.denim-and-leather.com/bands.shtml "Vyper", Denim and Leather] , retrieved August 20, 2008] [ [http://www.maximummetal.com/columns/way/21.asp "Where are you? - Vyper", Maximum Metal] , retrieved August 20, 2008] who he produced and managed. John Hughes, writing for the Kansas City Star, noted that "Mr. Greif hopes that Vyper will follow the pattern of last year's heavy metal meteor, Mötley Crüe, for which he was assistant manager and which recorded its first album with Greenworld...Billboard magazine announced the news in this week's issue". [Hughes, J. "Rock Band Vyper - and its manager - are coiled to strike", Kansas City Star, November 2, 1984] Quoting Greif, Hughes wrote "I'm going for millionaire status rather than blue-collar status. I'm marketing a product. The '80s is image, a look. The '80s are MTV". Greenworld's 1986 bankruptcy caused problems for Greif as Enigma Records, Greenworld's largest creditor, refused to return any of the master tapes and was not interested in promoting anything that Greenworld had been working on.

Greif moved into concerts as co-promoter of Milwaukee Metalfest, [ [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7006866076187030360&q=morbid+saint Greif MCs Milwaukee Metalfest III, December 2, 1989] ] described by MTV as "one of the largest celebrations of underground heavy metal in the country". [ [http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1432050/19980724/mercyful_fate.jhtml "Mega Metalfest Takes Milwaukee", MTV.com] , retrieved August 20, 2008] He managed death metal pioneer Chuck Schuldiner and his Florida band Death, [ [http://www.emptywords.org/BANDPerryGrayson.htm Emptywords.org] , retrieved August 20, 2008] [ [http://www.emptywords.org/Thrash'nBurn02-1992.htm Thrash 'n Burn, February 1992] , retrieved August 20, 2008] [ [http://www.voicesfromthedarkside.de/interviews/death.htm Voices from the Darkside Magazine] , retrieved August 20, 2008] did some campaigning against US heavy metal media censorship, [ [http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=901780753&n=2# TV interview (80s)] ] and produced bands such as Acrophet, [ [http://www.vinylrecords.ch/A/AC/Acrophet/Corrupt/corrupt_minds.html "Acrophet", Vinyl Records] , retrieved August 20, 2008] Morbid Saint, [ [http://nocturnalcult.com/morbidsaintint.htm Smith, B. "Interview with Tony Paletti of Morbid Saint 2006"] , retrieved August 20, 2008] Realm, [ [http://www.realm.name/bio.htm Bio, Realm - Official Band Website'] , retrieved August 20, 2008] Invocator, [ [http://www.invocator.com/biography.asp "Biography", The Official Invocator Homepage] , retrieved August 20, 2008] Viogression, [ [http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/artist/album/0,,181242,00.html "Viogression", Artist Direct] , retrieved August 20, 2008] Twistin' Egyptians, [ [http://www.daveonbass.com/disc/45.htm "Shakin' All Over/In The Sun 45 Page", Twistin' Egyptians' Discography] , retrieved August 20, 2008] Transmetal, [ [http://translate.google.ca/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://club.telepolis.com/transmetal/discos4.htm&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=3&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3D%2522Eric%2BGriffy%2BGreif%2522%26start%3D30%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26channel%3Ds%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN Discografia, Transmetal] , retrieved August 20, 2008] Cyclone, [ [http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=1110 "Cyclone", Metal Archives] , retrieved August 20, 2008] and Dr. Shrinker. Greif also managed LA band London, who at one time featured his former client Nikki Sixx, before their final break-up. ["London", www.metallian.com/london.php, retrieved August 20, 2008]

In 1991, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel music writer Terry Higgins stated: "At 29, Greif has become the kingpin of a steadily growing rock empire by becoming the kind of tough businessman who is as much at home in the courtroom as in the boardroom". [ Higgins, T. "Greif thrives on death metal", Milwaukee Sentinel, November 22, 1991] Although client Schuldiner had said about Greif "we just came to the conclusion that it was stupid just fighting all the time, taking each other to court and all that stupid shit", [ [http://www.emptywords.org/Thrash'nBurn02-1992.htm Thrash 'n Burn, February 1992] , retrieved August 20, 2008] by the mid 1990s Greif decided he'd spent enough time in court to know he wanted to become a lawyer.

Legal career

Eric Greif is a member of the Canadian Bar Association; after completing law school in Canada, from 1998 he studied postgraduate law at Lancaster University in England, and was twice awarded its Iredell Fellowship in Law, a national teaching fellowship for law PhD candidates. [ [http://www.cba.org/Alberta/PDF/Newsletter-Nov2000.pdf Canadian Bar Association Newsletter, November 2000] ] [ [http://www.lancs.ac.uk/admissions/postgrad/pdf/pgrad2003_p27-30.pdf Lancaster University Postgrade Admissions flyer, 2003] ]

Within legal practice, Greif was a co-founder of the Association of Restorative Practitioners of the UK and Ireland, [ [http://www.restorativejustice.org.uk/Resources/word/ARP(uk)_Proforma.doc Restorative Practitioners, restorativejustice.org.uk] , retrieved August 20, 2008] delivered victim-offender mediation training to the Czech Republic Probation and Mediation Service (PMS) in Prague, [ [http://www.yjb.gov.uk/publications/Resources/Downloads/YJBNews_21.pdf "The YJB takes RJ across the world", Youth Justice Board News] , February 2004] and was a State Prosecutors facilitator at a conference of the European Forum for Victim-Offender Mediation and Restorative Justice in Belgium. [ [http://www.era.int/web/fr/resources/5_1796_665_file_fr.761.pdf "Restorative justice and its relation to the criminal justice system: Second conference of the European Forum for Victim-Offender Mediation and Restorative Justice"] , Oostende, 10-12 October 2002, retrieved August 20, 2008] [ [http://www.euforumrj.org/readingroom/GM/GM_2002.doc European Forum for Victim-Offender Mediation & Restorative Justice] , retrieved August 20, 2008] In entertainment endeavors, Greif represented guitarist/songwriter Paul Masvidal. [ [http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=20443 Blabbermouth.net, March 17, 2004] , retrieved August 20, 2008]

Personal life

Greif says that he has always opposed the abuse of hard drugs, especially after seeing it "destroy" a few lives, including a former business partner. Greif has been an insulin-dependent diabetic for most of his life, which was briefly cured by a pancreas transplant, but "it failed a few months later and health continues to be a struggle for him", although he still lectures. [ [http://www.law.ucalgary.ca/files/law/1710_MootPubWeb.pdf "Alumni Update", Moot Hill, Faculty of Law, Winter 2007] , retrieved August 20, 2008]

References