How did Joe Tiboni, an elder law attorney in the small town of New Providence, New Jersey, wind up co-writing a Hollywood screenplay about an elder law attorney and having actor Paul Giamatti hanging out in his office?
As previously reported, Tiboni is an ElderLawAnswers member attorney who is just a few weeks away from his debut as a screenwriter of the Hollywood comedy "Win Win," opening nationwide on March 18 and starring Giamatti and Amy Ryan. ElderLawAnswers spoke with Tiboni recently about his new second career.
Tiboni says he has been writing for years but had never published anything. He has also been friends since childhood with Tom McCarthy, now a well-established Hollywood director, writer and actor who wrote and directed "The Station Agent" (2003) and "The Visitor" (2007). When the two friends would get together, Tiboni would relate some of the stories he hears as an elder law attorney. "Your clients have incredible lives and so much history . . . there's a lot of drama," Tiboni says.
McCarthy encouraged Tiboni to start writing the stories down in a notebook, which Tiboni began doing -- without including clients' names to protect confidentiality. Then in 2008, two weeks after Tiboni had sent his friend a writing sample, McCarthy called to see if Tiboni would be interested in being his writing partner for a film he had in mind about high school wrestling. Both men had been undistinguished members of the New Providence High School wrestling team, and McCarthy said he envisioned the film as something like a wrestling version of the "Bad News Bears."
Starting at the End of the World
To get the ball rolling, McCarthy invited Tiboni to Vancouver, where he was acting in the film "2012," which depicts the end of the world. Against that apocalyptic backdrop, when shooting was not taking place the two would retire to McCarthy's apartment to work on the story outline for what would become "Win Win."
As they bounced ideas back and forth, the character of the wrestling team's coach evolved into a man whose day job was that of an elder law attorney in New Providence. Like Tiboni, he would be married with two daughters, but unlike Tiboni, he would be a solo practitioner (Tiboni practices with his wife, Jane Carro Tiboni) and would be struggling to make ends meet (Tiboni's practice is thriving).
After Vancouver, the dialogue and detailed scene progression were painstakingly hashed out through "hours and hours and hours on the phone, drafts back and forth," Tiboni says. "We'd talk three or four times a day if we didn't see each other. Meanwhile I was practicing law and [helping to raise] two children."
Tiboni says writing a screenplay was easier for him than for most people because he was working with a pro like McCarthy, "It's like playing golf with Tiger Woods; your handicap is real low." (McCarthy received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay for the animated film "Up" and won Britain's equivalent of an Academy Award for his "Station Agent" writing.)
Making the Elder Law Office Real
Tiboni says one of his main contributions was to make the world of a small-town elder law attorney "look real," in contrast to the "L.A. Law" treatment firms typically receive. Giamatti, who took the role of the attorney, spent time in Tiboni's office to get a feel for the job. "I think he really got it that you're helping people," Tiboni says. (McCarthy confers with Giamatti below right.)
Nevertheless, the Giamatti character makes a couple of unconscionable decisions that Tiboni says neither he nor any elder law attorney he knows would make. To bring in some much-needed extra cash, the attorney assumes the guardianship of an affluent client. In the course of the film, the attorney commits his ward to a nursing home against his wishes and contrary to what he had originally promised the court.
"We tried to make it all as real as possible in terms of the things an attorney would face in this, even the ramifications later," says Tiboni. "[But] I didn't want people to think that this is autobiographical and I hope the elder law community is not up in arms when they see the attorney did something bad. It was really to show the things we grapple with every day in terms of clients who sometimes don't have to be in nursing homes, who have the money to stay home, and yet the decision is made out of convenience for the family."
Tiboni said he hopes the film will prompt audiences to question society's treatment of the elderly. Having traveled abroad and spent a year in Italy when he was in college, Tiboni has seen that Americans are almost unique in their willingness to commit their elderly parents to nursing homes so they can get on with their lives.
"I'm interested to see how [audiences] react towards the attorney," he says, "when in reality this is what [non-attorneys] do every single day -- people put people in nursing homes."
Writing "Win Win" Not Work-Work
How did Tiboni manage to keep a law practice going, be a husband and father, and also put in the time necessary to create a production-worthy screenplay? "I have no idea," he confesses. "I don't really have any hobbies, so for me it was kind of like my hobby. It was fun. It never felt like work-work. Practicing law is hard work and writing screenplays is hard work if that's all you're doing. But doing this was just a joy because I was hanging out with my friend."
Tiboni and McCarthy had looked forward to the film being shot on location in their hometown of New Providence, but for financial reasons the shooting took place on Long Island instead. New Jersey's tax credit for shooting was $1 million less than New York's, representing about a tenth of the film's total budget, Tiboni says. But exteriors were shot in New Providence and the interior of their high school gym was faithfully recreated.
Tiboni says he was able to be on location for the shooting "a couple of times a week, but then I had to be back at the office to help my clients."
Tiboni is continuing to write -- he is beginning work on the screenplay for a romantic comedy that has nothing to do with elder law -- but he says he has no plans to quit his day job.
"I love my practice," Tiboni says. "I'm one of the few attorneys who actually says that I really, really enjoy what I do. We have a nice set-up because it's Jane and me. We have our own small office and we're a quarter-mile from home, so I get to help people and then I get to go home for lunch. The law is working for us. We feel morally good about what we're doing."
For articles about Tiboni in the local New Jersey press, click here and here.
"Win Win, which is from Fox Searchlight Pictures, premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival to critical acclaim. To watch the movie's trailer, click here.
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