Neil Papiano represents not only a slate of movie and TV stars, he's the attorney of choice for several L.A. city officials

BEHIND Neil Papiano's conference table in his law firm's downtown high-rise suite are photos of Elizabeth Taylor, Walter Matthau, Sandra Locke, Joan Collins, Peggy Lee and Ricardo Montalban. They are all his clients. So are legendary jockeys Bill Shoemaker and Laffit Pincay.

But Papiano also moves in a very different world, as a consummate litigator at L.A. City Hall. He is currently representing Councilman Hal Bernson, as well as former Councilman Richard Alatorre in his battle for custody of his sister-in-law's child. Papiano also counts council President John Ferraro among his closest friends. Right now, he's representing the Nederlander organization in its controversial attempt to keep its exclusive contract to operate the Greek Theatre.

Question: How did you end up representing so many celebrities?

Answer: I sort of just happened into it. Back in the early 1970s, I represented some people who sold property to the Nederlanders. After that case, the Nederlander family actually approached me and asked me to represent them. Shortly afterward, Jimmy Nederlander introduced me to Elizabeth Taylor.

Q: What was your first impression of her?

A: Well, that's a funny story. When Jimmy introduced me to her and said she was Elizabeth Taylor, she was wearing a blond wig, so I didn't recognize her. I thought the whole thing was some elaborate joke. It turned out she was doing that to avoid recognition. Let me tell you, it worked. But once I had dinner with her, I found her to be a very charming, very compassionate woman. She is a lot of fun to be around.

Q: And your first big celebrity case, how did that come about?

A: I had done some litigation for Elizabeth Taylor, but there were two really big cases. One involved her perfume; there was a claim by an individual that he had ownership in her perfume. We were able to win that case. The next case was against the National Enquirer, which was settled to our great satisfaction.

Q: But aren't celebrity clients a pain to deal with, making all sorts of demands that other clients wouldn't have the nerve to?

A: Strangely enough, there aren't a lot of differences, and strangely enough, they are probably even better clients than others because they understand their celebrity nature. I haven't represented any of these people that I wouldn't consider to be friends and very easy to work with.