Wilmington, Delaware----This summer brought lights, camera, and action to the law offices of Bayard P.A., when it served as one of the Delaware locations for a film titled Relative Control, starring Teri Polo and written and produced by Charlene Davis.   Before becoming a screenwriter, Charlene served as Bayard’s President, Chair of its Marketing Committee and Director in its Bankruptcy & Restructuring Department.  She retired from Bayard at the end of 2018 to pursue her dream of making the film.   Her retirement gifts from the firm included not only a producer’s chair but a promise that she could use the public areas of the firm offices to film scenes for the screenplay.   Little did Bayard or Charlene know that making good on that promise would take 4 ½ years.   Finally, in July and August of this year, the film was cast with Delaware’s own Teri Polo (from the “Meet the Parents” trilogy) as lead actor and Patrick McDade (“Mare of Eastown”) as featured actor and the scenes for Relative Control were shot.  The cast and crew were on location at Bayard for 4 days.

In Relative Control a middle-aged, divorced, Type A attorney’s life spins out of control as she juggles the demands of her ex-cop, handful of a father, her increasingly forgetful mother and a reignited romantic interest; all while defending against a hostile takeover in the largest corporate control contest of her career.

In order to create Relative Control, Charlene studied screenwriting at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.  Although during her 30-year tenure at Bayard, she was not a corporate mergers and acquisitions attorney, she drew on her experience representing corporate clients in bankruptcy cases and brushed up on corporate control contests while writing the script.  She also drew inspiration from her own comic and tragic experiences caring for elderly parents.

The film is now in post-production and the production team is determining strategies for distribution.  Check out its progress on the Relative Control Facebook page.