The University of Southern California has chosen as its new general counsel a lifelong cellist who soothed his neighbors during the novel coronavirus stay-at-home order by giving free concerts from his front porch in Pasadena.

His talents could be helpful as USC labors under triple crises: the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, the admissions cheating scandal and the recently approved settlement stemming from sexual abuse complaints from 600 women against a former campus gynecologist.