Keith R. Fisher is not only a bank regulatory lawyer in real life, he also plays one in the movies.
Mr. Fisher, an attorney in Ballard Spahr's Washington, D.C., office, plays a key role in the documentary Cleveland Versus Wall Street, a somewhat fictionalized account of a trial stemming from a lawsuit filed by the City of Cleveland against 21 Wall Street banks. Cleveland really did file such a lawsuit in 2009. The city argued that the defendants’ financing of subprime mortgages constituted a public nuisance under Ohio law and led to a foreclosure crisis in Cleveland that devastated its neighborhoods and economy. The lawsuit was dismissed before reaching trial, however.
In Cleveland Versus Wall Street, Swiss director Jean-Stéphane Bron uses real Cleveland residents, many of whom were involved in the original lawsuit, as jurors and witnesses, along with the plaintiff lawyer who brought the actual case and a real Cleveland judge, to depict what might have happened had the case gone to trial. The director contacted Mr. Fisher because of his experience in banking law, leading the attorney to believe he would serve as script consultant. Instead he was asked to play the role of defense counsel in the trial. Mr. Fisher accepted the role because he felt the film would help audiences understand that the financial crisis can’t be blamed solely on Wall Street and the banking industry.
"I saw my function as putting on the most favorable 'movie case' for the defense that could be made," Mr. Fisher said. "I wanted to convince both the jury [comprising real people who actually deliberated and reached a verdict] and the movie audience that this story—and indeed the entire subprime crisis—is a lot more nuanced than 'Wall Street is responsible for these foreclosures.' The film is slanted strongly in favor of the underdog, which is no surprise, and therefore, in representing Wall Street, I’m the ‘bad guy.’ Still, I hope I’m a lovable bad guy. As I told French audience members in Cannes, 'Even Darth Vader is a Jedi.'"
Cleveland Versus Wall Street was selected for the Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival last year. Its U.S. premiere will take place at the Cleveland International Film Festival on April 2 and then open in other cities beginning on April 8.