[Ailist] Lawjobs.com Career Center Article: Are TV Shows to Blame for Distrust of Lawyers?

Sat Feb 16 13:23:28 MST 2008

   This article from Lawjobs.com CareerCenter has been sent to you by
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   Are TV Shows to Blame for Distrust of Lawyers?
   Kellie Schmitt

   In an episode of "Law & Order," a district attorney tries to get a
   search warrant without probable cause. When the effort fails, he
   figures out a way in anyway.

   A clip from legal drama "[1]Shark" includes a cross-examination that's
   similarly unrealistic, at least to a viewer with a J.D.

   But most viewers of these courtroom dramas aren't lawyers. The boring
   reality of a courtroom is less desirable than the antics on "[2]Boston
   Legal," but legal-oriented shows also reflect -- or create -- a very
   negative view of the legal profession. Only days before the end of the
   writers' strike, Michael Asimow, a professor emeritus of UCLA School
   of Law, wondered where all the nice TV lawyers had gone.

   "Why are they so nasty?" Asimow asked at an American Bar Association
   panel discussion about lawyers on TV. "There's a deep mistrust in the
   general public for our profession."

   Valiant legal heroes like the [3]relentlessly upright Perry Mason
   would get a client off, week after week, by calling the real killer to
   the stand and tripping him up on cross-exam. Today they have
   [4]hallucinatory epiphanies about their soulless greed or [5]take
   drugs and try to manipulate jury pools.

   But most of the writers at the recent Beverly Hills, Calif., event
   indicated that their portrayals are simply the nature of the drama
   vehicle, and it's not their job to portray lawyers in a positive -- or
   completely authentic -- light.

   "I don't think it's the writers' responsibility to make anyone look
   good," said [6]Charles Rosenberg, a partner at Rosenberg Mendlin &
   Rosen who has been a credited technical adviser on shows such as
   "[7]L.A. Law," "[8]The Practice" and, currently, "Boston Legal." "The
   writers' responsibility is to entertain audiences within reasonable
   ethical boundaries, something for writers and producers to decide."

   [9]William Fordes, a lawyer who has written for numerous shows,
   including "Law & Order," and films such as "Presumed Innocent,"
   agreed, saying he's neither an educator nor a booster of the
   profession.

   "I, frankly, don't care," Fordes said. "I write about what amuses me."

   When lawyers complain about the accuracy of television shows, they're
   usually complaining about procedural details that aren't all that
   important, Rosenberg said. Those details, if followed to a tee, could
   ruin the dramatic flow.

   "I learned quickly that you have to do what is necessary to make a
   scene interesting," said [10]Bill Chais, a lawyer who works on the CBS
   legal drama "Shark." "What we strive for sometimes is to make things
   sound right."

   Besides, the lawyers on television really aren't all bad, said
   [11]Craig Turk, a lawyer who is now a producer on the ABC series
   "Boston Legal."

   In that show, fictional character [12]Alan Shore, played by James
   Spader, may be ethically compromised, but he still sticks up for the
   underdog, Turk said.

   "He's fighting for the right thing," he said, adding that, like Shore,
   most lawyers portrayed on television have some redeeming trait.

   Turk said the courtroom and law office are much like hospital and cops
   shows, a high-stakes setting that can be used as a backdrop for drama.
   It's not intended to educate audiences on the law.

   "It's an excuse to engage with the characters," he said.

   And, from a professional standpoint, when producers come to you and
   say: Can we do this -- there's an inclination to say "yes," Chais
   said.

   But that wasn't enough of an excuse for moderator Asimow, who linked
   lawyers' deteriorating reputation with the television shows'
   portrayal.

   "Lawyers are the most hated and distrusted of all professions, and
   that wasn't always the case," he said. Asimow pointed to the 1970s and
   '80s when they were more in the middle of the professional pack.

   "Since then, they have plunged," Asimow said.

   He pointed to the studies that show people are indeed affected by what
   they see on television.

   "People can be shown to internalize the information from fictitious
   shows," Asimow said.

   "I don't care what happens out there," Fordes said. "That is not my
   job."

   He cited the "CSI effect," in which real-life juries have unreasonable
   expectations of prosecutorial evidence based on what they've seen on
   TV procedurals, and said it's the lawyers' jobs to pick good juries
   and re-educate them if necessary.

   "Whenever people say 'You guys make it difficult,' I think, 'You must
   not be a good lawyer -- do a better job,'" he said.

   Rosenberg agreed that lawyers must re-educate jurors tainted by
   small-screen expectations.

   "Audiences are smart -- most people understand the difference between
   fact and fiction," he said. "Would you watch a medical show and
   believe it's all true? No."

   GETTING INTO THE INDUSTRY

   In Los Angeles, every parking attendant has an unoptioned screenplay,
   and every manicurist has an agent. The lawyers watching the Beverly
   Hills seminar were no more immune to the Hollywood allure. Most were
   more interested in getting a writer's job than in debating the effect
   of dramatic portrayals. The lawyers concluded the discussion by
   talking about how they went from practicing law to writing about it.

   As a practicing attorney, Rosenberg said, he gets inquiries from
   fellow lawyers all the time, asking how to get into the writing scene.
   Panelists took turns discussing their irregular career paths.

   "Boston Legal" producer Turk, who'd been chief counsel of John
   McCain's 2000 presidential campaign, "didn't love practicing law." He
   wanted to write a book, but took a friend's advice to start with a
   screenplay that had "tons of white space and wasn't that long." He
   wrote it, sent it to some contacts and, eventually, got a call that
   led to his first TV work.

   Turk's tip was a familiar piece of writing advice: Comb your
   experiences and put them into your writing.

   "Write about what you know," he said.

   Fordes said he often gets ideas from stories he tears from newspaper
   pages. He said he recently combined a 10-year-old clipping on a
   kidnapping with the current backdrop of the subprime mortgage crisis.

   Rosenberg recommends the writing life.

   "It's fun because it allows me to get involved in drama without having
   the hard work of actually doing it," he said.

   And working with the drama can be insightful for his own practice.
   Lawyers, he said, often go into trial with a long list of theories to
   prove, something that can get cumbersome and complicated for a jury.

   "They'd be better off doing what drama says," he said. "You can only
   tell two stories at a time."
   [13]http://www.law.com/jsp/law/careercebter/lawArticleCareerCenter.jsp
   ?id=1203075902682

References

   1. http://www.cbs.com/primetime/shark/
   2. http://abc.go.com/primetime/bostonlegal/
   3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Mason_%28TV_series%29
   4. http://abc.go.com/primetime/elistone/index?pn=index
   5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denny_Crane
   6. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0742189/
   7. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LA_Law
   8. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Practice
   9. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0285969/
  10. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0149743/
  11. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1541762/
  12. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Shore
  13. http://www.law.com/jsp/law/careercenter/lawArticleCareerCenter.jsp?id=1203075902682