TV Shows About Lawyers
Many people’s understanding of what lawyers do comes from TV shows and movies. It should come as no surprise that neither are often super realistic, but there are some aspects that are instructive about what I find to be accurate and what I find to be silly.
Most TV shows about law concern criminal law, often because criminal law can be more dramatic (people literally kill each other) and draws from a wider cross-section of society (rich and poor, old and young) and is more accessible to a wide audience (everyone understands theft and attacks). But some brave TV producers have tried to depict commercial disputes.
Why should you continue to read this post about TV shows?
You want to know what law is like but do not want to leave your couch.
Watching TV shows takes too long, so you’d rather read a blog post about TV shows to save time.
You’re jealous of lawyers because of how cool they seem on TV and you’d like confirmation that lawyers actually aren’t that cool.
My Problems With Law & Order
Growing up, I watched a lot of Law & Order. And while that show concerns criminal law and not commercial litigation, it gave young me a little insight into what being a lawyer in New York was like. In my current experience, it gets a lot of things right and a lot of things wrong.
First, the sheer number of trials on the show is crazy. Maybe this is different in the world of criminal law, but Jack McCoy somehow worked on around 20 major trials every year. My head would fall off of my neck if I tried doing that. That’s just too much work.
Next, Jack McCoy seems to ask questions of witnesses and give speeches extemporaneously. In the real world of commercial litigation, however, lawyers plan their examinations meticulously and deliver prepared remarks. Although good lawyers don’t read directly from their notes as they speak, and give the impression that they are speaking from the heart, they usually follow a plan.
Oral arguments on Law & Order frequently take place in a judge’s chambers. While judges will frequently invite lawyers to their chambers for scheduling conferences and to plan administrative matters, the bulk of the arguments take place in written submissions and oral arguments normally take place in the courtroom (or on Zoom/Microsoft Teams).
One thing the show does get right, however, is how frequently Jack McCoy raises his eyebrows because opposing counsel or the court or a witness does something so unexpected that it takes a moment of silence to process. Although the world of commercial litigation is not usually so dramatic as Law & Order, and so the unexpected events are not so off the wall that a lay person would appreciate them, I frequently sympathize with this look of surprise on Jack’s face.
My Problem With Shows Like Suits, The Good Wife, The Practice, and Boston Legal
There are plenty of shows that depict lawyers who work in fancy law firms, handling civil matters. Shows like Suits, The Practice, the Good Wife, and Boston Legal, dramatize serious people making compelling arguments in skyscrapers while wearing fancy clothes. They get a few things right and a lot wrong.
One thing they get wrong is that real lawyers don’t dress as nicely in the office as lawyers on TV. These days, it’s common for lawyers in an office to dress like they are going to a nice restaurant more than like if they are going to give the State of the Union. I personally wear slacks and a button down shirt unless a client is coming to the office or I am going to court.
Another thing they get wrong is that lawyers rarely (though not never) deviate from their practice area. A fancy lawyer who does divorces probably isn’t also going to also handle a corporate shareholder dispute or a criminal defense issue. Despite this, lawyers on TV seem to have more diverse caseloads than lawyers I’ve met. (Though a key exception to this is in pro bono charity matters, lawyers at firms may handle cases from different practice areas because they are serving an unmet need where more specialized counsel is often unavailable).
Better Call Saul Probably Gets It the Closest
While no show gets commercial litigation completely right, Rhea Seehorn’s character Kim Wexler on Better Caul Saul is probably the closest depiction I have seen to a civil attorney, even though she is not a litigator, nor is the depiction perfectly accurate.
As a caveat, the show takes place in New Mexico in the early 2000s, and my practice is in New York 20 years later, so my experience may not perfectly line up to what hers is supposed to be.
That said, watching Kim perform document review in a basement was accurate. While I have been fortunate enough to review documents in emails in upper-floor offices with windows, I have also toiled in windowless rooms and know other lawyers who have done the same. It’s also the sort of work that’s tedious, but not excruciating.
Watching Kim scramble to get clients by cold calling a bunch of people and finally making a connection with someone she kind of knew whose dad runs a mid-tier bank sounded like the kind of back story I frequently see in law.
But she isn’t a perfect depiction: she focuses on bank regulation but also does criminal defense and attorney malpractice? That seemed to be an unusually broad scope of practice to me. And even though she is exceptionally gifted, she rises through the ranks at her firm and in the local legal community faster than I’d expect anyone to do, especially since nothing she does is conveyed as spectacular, merely competent. But, then again, watching her toil away unappreciated for 10+ seasons would probably make for bad television.