20 Things You Didn't Know About A Serious Man
9. Hire Ron Meshbesher
Don Milgram (Adam Arkin), Larry's divorce lawyer, proposes he hires Ron Meshbesher, a prominent lawyer who also happened to be a real-life person. This suggestion is made once it is discovered that Arthur is charged with solicitation and sodomy, accusations that are beyond the scope of a typical divorce lawyer.
The choice to use Meshbesher in the film was influenced by the Coens seeing ads featuring the esteemed attorney in their childhood days. However, Meshbesher wasn't as well-known in the late sixties as the movie portrays as he was still making a name for himself in the legal arena.
Despite the anachronistic choice, the film still had scenes set in the Minneapolis office of Meshbesher and Spence as a homage to the celebrated advocate and to highlight how desperate Larry's situation has become.