On paper, David H. Steinberg is no slacker. He attended Yale at age 16 and then moved on to Duke Law School, where he was editor of the law review. After several years as an attorney, mostly in entertainment law, Steinberg decided he enjoyed the entertainment more than the law. He enrolled in film school, or more specifically, the producer's program at University of Southern California.
Steinberg decided writing, not producing, was his passion and managed to get an agent to represent him during his last year of USC. Broke and determined to write more, he dropped out during his final semester. Several months later, he sold one of his screenplays for a staggering $700,000.
That first screenplay to sell happened to be Slackers, which was made into the 2002 film about college students scamming the system and blackmailing each other. While the end result of the film was much different from Steinberg's original script (a common occurrence in Hollywood), Steinberg's Hollywood career was launched.
And Steinberg, 35, insists he truly is a slacker.
"I am a slacker," Steinberg said. "In high school, I was the guy who sat in the back of the class, making snide comments. To prove that I'm a slacker, well, the plan was to get into college my junior year, then defer for a year and finish high school, then slack off in high school for a year taking art classes or whatever."
But he got into Yale and decided the opportunity was too good to pass up. Growing up in the suburbs of West Hartford, CT, Steinberg said he figured Yale would be full of wild toga parties, like a scene from Animal House, and that his high school friends would be envious.
But Yale is no Animal House.
"My freshman year was miserable," he said. "I was 16; no girls would talk to me. In high school, I was popular, I had girlfriends."
Steinberg said he went to law school because he figured he could make a lot of money as a lawyer.
"After college, my primary motivation was I didn't want to look for a job. I read a brochure for law school about how much you can make as a lawyer," he said. "It's easy to get into law school. You just take a test, take the LSATs, and write an essay. There's no research or interviews, so any smart person can get into law school and make a lot of money."
After graduating from Duke Law School in 1993, Steinberg moved to Houston, TX, and clerked on the 5th Circuit for a year, traveling often to New Orleans, where the 5th Circuit is based. The experience was "the only job in law I ever really loved."
He then moved to Atlanta and joined Los Angeles-based law firm Paul Hastings. There, he was hooked up with one of the entertainment law partners and started handling some entertainment litigation as an associate. He moved to New York with the firm, still practicing entertainment litigation.
"I met the R&B group TLC. TLC was going bankrupt, and we represented the record company," he said. "It was a very cordial litigation, and it was fun. We were hanging out with TLC. I would flirt with them."
Many of his clients then were in the music world and would often call on weekends and at night with requests. After just two months with the firm in New York, Steinberg realized he wasn't meant to be an attorney. He applied to film schools in Los Angeles.
"I just decided I wanted to be the guy making the phone calls, not the one getting the phone calls," he said. "I wasn't a good lawyer anyway. I have a hard time concentrating on things I find boring."
He spent the summer working at the law firm and watching hundreds of movies, from Casablanca to every Kurosawa film ever made, figuring other film students would be well versed. They weren't.
"I produced a couple of short films and realized I liked writing more," he said. "As a writer, you're the talent. I like being considered the talent. It's an ego boost. If I could be a $20-million actor, I would be, but I can't act. I'm not going to be a singer or a male model. But I can write."
Writers in Hollywood need good attorneys. Does Steinberg represent himself?
"No. I'm on my fourth lawyer. As a lawyer, I'm very critical of my lawyers and have fired three lawyers as a result of incompetence," he said. "They provide an expertise I don't have."
Steinberg said he knows many people unhappy in their careers who stay put because they don't know what exactly they want to do. That, he says, is a mistake. You won't discover your passion until you try other things. Make a list of things you might like and start doing them, he says, noting that he only discovered his love of writing by learning how to produce movies.
"And I loved law school," he said. "The subject of the law is fascinating. It's interesting philosophically. And people don't understand how our legal system works. It's almost like an advanced Bachelor of Arts; it's an awesome degree to have. Practicing law is different."
Steinberg said he might hang his shingle someday if people stop paying him to write movies. He has also written American Pie 2, After School Special, and the upcoming Puss in Boots. He's also working on a vampire comedy called Love at Second Bite, a sequel to the first bite.
But Steinberg hopes the movie jobs keep coming. He is married to a producer, and the couple is expecting their first baby soon.
If you're interested in a career in screenwriting, you can read Steinberg's advice on his column Hollywhooped, found on www.scriptsales.com, a popular industry website. Just please don't write to him and say you have brilliant ideas, but don't plan to write them. He hates that. His column is about writing. And screenwriting is not about brilliant ideas, it's about executing brilliant ideas. (Consider yourself warned, Steinberg replies in kind to all stupid requests and insults.)
Steinberg, who lived on his savings while he was a student at USC, said his money ran out when he dropped out that third semester. He was desperate for cases, and he signed up with a temping agency to do some contract legal work.
Instead of temping, he got a Hollywood ending.
"The week I sold Slackers, I got a call from the temp agency, offering me a job," he said laughing.
Thanks! I signed up and LawCrossing has been very helpful so far! Alison
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