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Brian Rohan, San Francisco’s “drug lawyer” for clients like the Grateful Dead and Ken Kesey, has passed away. He was 84 years old.
It’s hard to find an icon from the 1960s counterculture that isn’t related in some way to Rohan. Among his clients were the Merry Pranksters, Jerry Garcia and Neal Cassady; as a music lawyer, Rohan has represented the Dead, Santana, Janis Joplin and Jefferson Airplane.
Rohan has spent his entire life on the West Coast, growing up in Washington before attending the University of Oregon and then UC Hastings College of Law. He scored his first high profile client in 1965 at Kesey, who was barely 30 years old and already world famous for “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”. After defending Kesey for possession of marijuana, Rohan became San Francisco’s man of reference on “doping” charges.
“Brian Rohan, although he is probably one of the most successful doping lawyers, has not worn a suit for a year, his usual outfit being faded corduroys and a t-shirt,” wrote the reviewer in a story from 1970. “He wears dark glasses at all times. ‘I can’t look people in the eye when I ask for all this money – I get it, and it’s insane.’ “
During the Summer of Love, he co-founded the Haight-Ashbury legal organization. The group set up a table outside the Grateful Dead House at 710 Ashbury and potential customers could walk straight.
October 20, 1967: Members of the Grateful Dead and friends are arrested at their home in 710 Ashbury by narcotics police. Ron “Pig Pen” McKernan and Bob Weir were the arrested group members.
Barney Peterson / The ChronicleThrough his association with the dead, Rohan also became a music lawyer. In 1966, he helped the group negotiate their first contract with Warner Bros. His advocacy for his clients sometimes turned physical, as columnist Herb Caen recounted in 1977. Rohan was present at Clive Davis’ Grammy Awards party when ‘he spotted record producer David Geffen. “Brian has been simmering for a while because Geffen refuses to return his phone calls and on top of that, ‘he stepped on my clients,’” Caen wrote.
Rohan would have walked up to Geffen and said, “David, here or outside?” to which Geffen retorted: “Get lost”.
“I’m going to sink your face into the marmalade,” was Rohan’s response.
“Being on a low-calorie diet, Geffen turned away, to which Rohan grabbed him by his hand-sewn cuffs, pulled him to his feet and belted him,” Caen wrote. Bob Dylan’s lawyer reportedly joked, “I wish I had done that.”
Rohan is survived by his daughter Kathleen Jolson of Nicasio and sons Brian Rohan Jr. of San Anselmo, Chris Ray Rohan of Santa Rosa and Michael Lonan of Yuba City. Jolson told The Chronicle that Rohan died in his sleep in his Larkspur home on Tuesday after a six-year battle with cancer.
“He worked until the last day of his life, holding his phone in one hand and his iPad in the other,” Jolson told the newspaper. “He fought for his clients, he fought for his friends and he fought for what he thought was right.”
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