Sy Nazif's new workplace is not your Wilshire Boulevard law firm.
The pinstriped suit he wears to court mostly lives on a hanger in an office lacking adornment, unless you consider the helmet, saddlebag and leather jacket stacked on a filing cabinet to be installation art.
The Canoga Park firm's seven lawyers prowl their warren of cluttered rooms in jeans and sport shoes, few showing up much before noon to cater to a clientele with few morning persons. A quilt made of biker-club patches and photographic mementos of road trips decorate a dark-paneled waiting room.
Nazif landed among the biker barristers at the law firm of Richard M. Lester after getting laid off from a general practice -- a quirk of recession-driven fate that acquainted the half-Irish, half-Arab business litigator with a dream job he didn't know existed.
"I've been a bike rider since I was a pup," said Nazif, 34. "I never realized I could combine the two things I love and do it for a living."
Lawyers who ride were a rarity in the days when motorcyclists were portrayed in film and television as outlaws. But a motorcycle's attractive gas mileage, and the appeal of the powerful machines that have become pricey status symbols for aging baby boomers, have expanded and gentrified the motorcycling public.
With the number of motorcycles registered in California more than doubling over the last decade to 824,244 last year, at least half a dozen law firms between the Bay Area and the Mexican border now deal exclusively with the wounds and woes of bikers.
Biker-lawyers like Nazif can relate to their clients. Most having been catapulted to the pavement themselves by inattentive drivers, they know the pain of crunching bones, the terror of the left-turning vehicle, the injustice of judges and juries who view their misfortunes as self-inflicted.
"I had an accident in law school -- my shoulder still sticks out," said Nazif, reflexively massaging his right shoulder as he recalled the motorist who pulled in front of him on a busy San Francisco street six years ago, sending him flying onto the roadway. "I had to fight the insurance company tooth and nail just to get my medical bills paid."
Having amassed more than 40 injured clients in his first month with Lester, Nazif sees a sobering parade of injuries through the firm every day.
"Being here makes me a safer rider," he said. "These clients are daily reminders that cars just don't see us."
