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CROSS EXAMINED Entertainment lawyer Chris Taylor with hip hop star Drake, one of his list of famous clients. Entertainment lawyer Chris Taylor wanted to be a rock star but ended up as a Record maker lawyer and record producer for them instead. BY DAVE BRIGGS O n the top floor of a for- mer Second World War machine gun factory in the trendy Liberty Vil- lage section of Toronto, an acoustic guitar and a stack of Chris Taylor's favourite records — yes, the vinyl variety — are propped beneath a generous multi-paned window. Hang- ing behind Taylor's desk filling most of a soaring white wall are, literally, gold records and other framed tokens of appre- ciation from his clients. The names are an impressive array of Canadian music talent that includes Drake, Nelly Furtado, Sum 41, Metric, Sam Roberts, Billy Talent, and many others. The wall is the show stopper, the deal clincher, the proof the 46-year-old lawyer wearing jeans with a sport coat, dress shirt, and tie, has had the success to match his cool, hip office space. If you need further proof, check the liner notes for Drake's new album Take Care, where the hip hop star thanks Taylor for taking him on as a client and "for solely focusing on protecting me and ensuring I am always in the clear." Around the time both Time magazine and Billboard were also praising Taylor, he was busy founding both his own indie label (Last Gang Records in 2003) and his entertainment firm (Taylor Mitsopu- los Klein Oballa in 2006), focusing on artist-side law. Time called Taylor one of Canada's "movers and shakers" and key to 20 FEBRUA R Y 2012 www. CANADIAN Lawyermag.com building the nation's entertainment indus- try. Billboard has frequently cited Taylor as an expert in his field in Canada. To think all this was Taylor's fallback plan if he failed to put his own gold records on the wall. His first plan had been musical super- stardom, though Taylor jokes when he first entered Osgoode Hall Law School in 1987, he initially "wanted to be the prime minister of Canada." Yet, a strange thing happened along the way. Taylor's life- long passion for music — nurtured in his hometown of Windsor, Ont., by music- loving parents and the luxury of the close proximity to Detroit — was becoming a serious side gig to studying law. "As I was working my way through law school, I