Dave Stein, aka “The Hardcore Attorney,” has passed away. He was an entertainment lawyer for several bands, ranging from Agnostic Front to Sick Of It All to Madball to Shelter to Shutdown to Taking Back Sunday to The Starting Line, and he was also a musician, produced the first Absolution 7″, sang on Agnostic Front records, owned the labels Combined Effort Records and Mendit, and promoted shows. His sister Elissa broke the news:
This morning the world lost the most resilient, awe-inspiring, fierce warrior I’ve ever known: my hero and my little brother Dave Stein. He let go with grace and ease, after saying he could still fight if there was something to fight for. But it was his time.
Dave had cancer when he was 9 months old and battled endless illnesses and set backs his entire life, but he never, ever, like EVER let that stop him. He was PMA (positive mental attitude) and straight edge and a vegan and saw the world in pretty stark black and white. He worked harder than anyone I know. Was my personal IT guru. His shopping skills were legendary as was his ability to recall a joke at even the most challenging moments, like heading into surgery. Music was his life blood and he combined that with his singular organizational abilities to be a force as an entertainment lawyer with gold and platinum records hanging in his house. He was silly and goofy and kind and loyal and whip smart and was so grateful for his life even with all the extra hardships he had to contend with. He loved his wife beyond words, his rescue dogs who brought him such great joy, his family which sometimes drove him crazy, and his friends whom he considered family.
I’ve felt an extra bond with him the past 12 plus years since he’s had a piece of me inside of him. Sid, his kidney named after one of our favorite cousins, was still going strong until the very end. This photo was from June, our 12th rebirthday, as he called it, which we celebrated in the hospital with his favorite Vegan Treats cakes.There are so many things I could share: he was morally offended at anyone who would wear competing logos like Pumas and Adidas at the same time. He owned more Champion sweatshirts than most stores have in inventory. He stopped cutting his hair and started growing a beard when his original kidney started to fail, saying his hair was the only thing that was working and he’d cut it all off when he got a new one. Bane of my mother’s existence that even with a new kidney he never chopped it which is why I always secretly thought he kept it all. I would love to know something you shared with Dave if you’d like to share it here. He was so loved and made such a positive impact in so many lives.
Love you bro (insert our not so secret handshake here).
Tributes to Dave have come in from Agnostic Front (and Roger Miret individually), Eddie Leeway, Mike Dijan (Crown of Thornz, Breakdown, etc), Mike Judge, Joe Hardcore, Joe Nelson (Trust Records), and others. See below.
Talking to Double Cross Webzine in 2008, Dave said:
I guess a big part of hardcore is some level of fairness and righteousness and I guess that’s what drew me towards a career as a lawyer. At some point I had a vision that I’d be a first amendment lawyer or a criminal defense lawyer, but I accumulated massive debt in law school and “sold out” by taking a mega-firm job at Cravath with an expectation of paying off my loans quickly and figuring it out from there. When I started working there, the label stopped, but somehow I got involved in Reconstruction Records, a cool hardcore record store that lasted in the East Village from November 1990 to November 1992. Eventually, I worked my way towards being a music lawyer and I’m back to working with many of the people I worked with in the mid-90s, with a client roster that includes Equal Vision (Steve Reddy), Agnostic Front, Sick Of It All, etc.
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Just got news that Dave Stein, an entertainment lawyerly who many people like myself have worked with in the hardcore music scene for decades has sadly passed away and succumbed to a long-term illness. This guy was awesome at his job and will be sorely missed.
— Jon Draper (@iamjondraper) August 31, 2023