I'm watching Suits and it is hilarious. Motion to dismiss denied, trial is set for the following morning, 9 am and lo and behold, the following morning, there's a fully empanelled jury!
On the other hand, Better Call Saul is superb, at least to my European eyes.
TV show pitch: watch this lawyer sit in front of a computer all day! Money me. Money now.
an A24 slow burn about a lawyer who goes crazy as the untreated carpal tunnel progresses, eventually being fired from their job as their fear of surgery cost them their career - the movie ends where our protagonist (self antagonist?), out of fear for their condition worsening, foregoes using their hands all together in daily life as a self-prescribed purgatory
At least one very old couple chime in to tell the lawyer to "not watch the screen too long, it's bad for your eyes" only to then die in front of them.
You've just described The Bear but for us.
I would cast George Clooney as me doing Westlaw searches.
Clooney experiences an existential crisis when faced with a critical decision: Should he go outside his Westlaw plan for that secondary source he really needs? The wrong choice could cost him everything.
Underrated comment đđ
The following week: Clooney spends hours researching case law to come up with a clever common law argument for his client before realizing that the issue was resolved by a recently passed statute
Heâs working from home, clad only in boxer briefs and a furrowed brow, while a scantily clad redhead massages his aching shoulders and murmurs loving words of encouragement.
Meanwhile, over her shoulder, we can see a stealthy figure at the window, as the storm rages on.
New law and order spinoff.
Following real life criminal defense attorneys around. Â 50% of the day listening to clients lie to them 49% waiting for their turn in court and scheduling, 1% action.
"I can't decide if I want to use times new roman 12 point or 12.5 point" riveting!
Makes it rain penny's pickles & dimes
Iâve worked peripherally on some high-stakes civil litigation. While the months and months (and months) of lead-up would be boring as heck to watch, the actual trial could make for fascinating TV in the hands of competent producers.
During trial, we had a video feed playing live in our trial offices (because this was the kind of litigation with specially leased trial offices), and we were all reacting to testimony and the judge like football fans in a sports bar every time a judge made a decision. All of the trial lawyers had big personalities. The jurors were hilarious in their efforts to stay awake and engaged. Some of the experts were ideal characters. The actual plaintiffs were clueless semi-backwoods types. The defendant was an Evil CorporationâŚ
Iâd watch that show.
We had a tax fraud trial that was actually quite interesting once the defense started to grill the unindicted coconspirators
Actually Dick Wolf created a show called Crime & Punishment following San Diego DAs as they prosecuted actual cases. Sadly only lasted a season, is not in streaming platforms, and is not on DVD except for Emmy promos
Was that the one where the defense attorney put his wedding band on a string while trying to poke a pencil into it, and trying to demonstrate that the rape was impossible because he couldn't get the pencil in?
I remember that. Brilliantly setting up his clientâs ineffective assistance appeal.
WTactualF? Was it an effective defense or an excuse to passive aggressively imply his client was a pencil dick? Or did the alleged incident include the victim being constrained in a sex swing and the accused having no hands?
It was closing argument. The defense lawyer tied a wedding ring to a string and made it look like he couldnât poke a pencil through it because it kept swinging around. He argued that itâs effectively impossible to rape a woman who is fighting back. I remember watching it and my jaw dropped. Spoiler: his client was convicted.
I donât know. I really want to watch the show but I literally cannot find it anywhere.
I watched that while in law school. Found it helpful while I was in mock trial. I remember an episode of that in which the defendant and his brother in the audience attacked the prosecutor after the verdict. Wild. Wish they made more episodes.
It took talent for the author of A Civil Action to make civil procedure seem so compelling. I remember a chapter called âthe Rule 11 Motionâ and it seemed so dramatic.
That said, Iâve had some depositions that would make for good television. Comedy though, not drama.
Thereâs a really good French production called Justice a Vegas that you can watch on YouTube. It follows both PDs and DAs over about 3-4 murder cases in Las Vegas. The amount of access the camera crew gets to client interviews, investigations, and strategy sessions is astounding. Itâs all in English with French subtitles, so itâs completely watchable. Hard recommend.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsGfx2wwiPwYaVMHMWv7JeirwwjxDh2Jf&si=V81uPWPeI5cCT7PQ
Staircase on Netflix wasnât all that bad
Sure, but exactly 0 of the murder cases Iâve defended or worked on have been that exciting or required that kind of preparation. That was anything but âdaily lawyeringâ
Amazingly, there's a documentary about that case that actually captures much of the defense attorney's interactions with the client in their pretrial preparations, etc.
Pretty sure I saw the casting calls for this (or something functionally identical) when I was looking for work in LA. I always wondered how they planned on dealing with privilege issues, now I have my answer: they didn't.
I used to do child protection law (taking county appointments representing parents and kids in CPS cases), and a colleague of mine used to be in broadcasting. We talked somewhat seriously about doing a reality show about that. It would not have been boring (oh, the stories we could tellâŚ), but privilege was a big problem and the judge who heard all the CPS matters in our county was not friendly to the idea at all.
Could have been pretty interesting though. Lots of people worth rooting for who just need help, lots of heartbreak, lots of underdog stories, and lots of very interesting personalities, both lawyers and clients.
I mean they can speed some things up for dramatic purposes but there are some amazing cases with interesting facts. Or some areas of law are really fascinating.
Better Call Saul is one of the best at getting the realism of lawyer practice right. Including the personalities of attorneys. Iâve known Kim Wexlers, worked for Chuck McGills, crossed paths with HamlinsâŚ. Most of the procedural stuff and the drudgery of a local court is portrayed spot on. And that one episode of Jimmy trying to drum up business⌠yeah, Iâve met every one of those clients.
Crazy good lawyering show.
I can almost smell Jimmyâs courthouse. Reminds me of my days in the DAâs office - cheap coffee, BO, bad perfume, bad breath, maybe a hint of vomit. Each time he walks through those doors it puts me back in the county courthouse. Itâs very real. BCS is brilliant.
This reminds me of the dreaded 4th Floor in Parks and Rec, which to me captures every municipal court Iâve been to.
And the stale cigarette smell that you can never quite get out of the old courthouses.
Agreed. When Kim had to do document review, I felt that. She captured the drudgery so well.
While doing what seemed to be an interminable document review 24 years ago I found out that there are actually people who are paid to watch paint dry and write reports about it. Then some poor schmuck awaiting bar results has to review those reports.
Ha! When people ask me what show is most like real lawyering I always say Better Call Saul.
I also agree on how he hussles in the courtroom bouncing from one opposing counsel to the other trying to settle cases. I love never practiced crim law, but I did do work comp for a short stint and it was exactly like that.Â
What was inaccurate was the portrayal of the business of law. You mean to tell me HHM, an office that handles complex admin law representing banks, also handles plaintiff class action litigation and rinky dink RO matters?? Sure!!!!!!!!
The class action made some sense to me, itâs a pretty large firm but not âbig lawâ. Iâve worked at mid sized firms that are all over the place with their practice areas. It isnât necessarily a great business model for a firm, but⌠it is Albuquerque in 2003-4, so they may need to be diverse in what business they handle.
I dunno, I think that multiple types of legal areas including class action is common in mid-size city firms, every partner has their own book a lot of the time and so one might do class actions, for the bigger paydays and then others do things that bring in more regular checks like bank representation, real estate or whatever.
Attorneys know that BCS is the most accurate and when we say that to non-lawyers they scoff. Shows like Suits and LA Law are fun but totally ridiculous to those that actually practice law.
I really love how BCS captures the client counseling experience. Iâve definitely had delusional thinking clients like the Kettlemans, the unappreciative 4 months probation guy, the big money overly demanding kev wachtell
Not to mention the guy with an unpatentable invention, the delusional but wealthy client who wants you to do something insaneâŚ.
Iâm a guardian ad litem. My cases are so drama filled, Iâm sure it would make great tv if it was not all confidential.
Yeah, but I never got why he has to sign up all the old people if it's a class case. That's the whole point of a class action!
Itâs 2003, not exactly the era of ubiquitous internet access. As well, they tried to do direct mail notifications to potential clients but Jimmy realized the nursing homes were (illegally, federal crime I must add) throwing away those mailers before they reached the potential clients. So Jimmy had to get people signed up personally and recruit more through word of mouth.
I was the local lawyer for TLPJ a few times and one time I was driving all these Mississippi back roads trying to find the people who agreed to oppose the class (to get a better deal for everyone; the lawyer for the class was a piece of shit). Crazy but fond memories.
Is BCS pretty standalone, or is it tightly connected to Breaking Bad? I watched BB years ago. Wondering if I can just start BCS without needing to rewatch BB. (Sorry for all the letters!)
No need to rewatch. There are plenty of BB callbacks (or call-forwards since itâs a prequel series) but theyâll just jog your memory. It stands on its own just fine.
My favorite show!
No one can convince me that the practice of law in Suits wasn't written as a joke to lawyers.
Suits was conceived if and originally written as being set amidst Wall Street traders/brokers. The show creatorâs background was in that area. When he sold it as a show, they came back and asked if it could be about lawyers instead. He said âsure.â
They didnât really bother to research more than that initially.
Iâm pretty sure one the of the main writerâs brother is/was a Cravath or Cleary partner and is the inspiration for Louis Litt.
I said NO ONE WILL CONVINCE ME
That seems about right for Wall Street traders
I couldnât finish more than two episodes. Didnât he do like commercial, litigation, and real estate all in one day? Yeah, no. Maybe a small-town solo, maybe but even then unlikely.
Donât forget family law, employment discrimination and criminal.
That was my general issue with The Good Wife which is otherwise I think a lot more researched than Suits. The main character is kind of just doing a little bit of whatever, they canât make her pick just one field of law.
A little bit of whatever and sheâs brilliant at all of it
Hpw to Get Away With Murder might actually be worse. Though Shonda Rhimesâ later legal show, For The People, about AUSAs and Federal Public Defenders in the SDNY is a bit more accurate (though itâs terrorism episode is so hilariously biased and poorly argued by both sides)
I laughed pretty hard when the one guy recited bar prep material and the other guy acted impressed
You are pretty spot on actually. The character Michael Ross is named after the ethics professor at Brooklyn law School where one of the original writers went.Â
I watched one episode of How to Get Away with Murder and that was it for me. In like 48 hours, there was a murder, arrest and full trial. And the trial had surprise witnesses. So silly.
What, youâve never went and hired a handful of 1Ls to help you in your practice during their first few weeks? Thatâs when theyâre the smartest! /s
But theyâll have the unbeatable, âwrite your own ticketâ resume line of⌠working for a professor. Who also happens to be, umm, kind of a nutcase.
And the whole defense is to kill more people
My brother in law made me watch Bull because he thought I'd like it, but same. Jury trial in 3 days, while the victim was still wearing the bandages on his injuries. I'm actually one that can overlook a lot of bad legal stuff to enjoy the show, but one, that is far too stupid, and two, that show was really bad.
I once tried to turn this show into a drinking game with my law school classmates and despite all of us being burgeoning alcoholics, we had to quit after the first two episodes because it truly was just that divorced from reality.
Suits is ridiculous. Every legal battle was won by someone throwing a manila folder down on opposing counselâs desk. They would pick it up, take a brief look at the first page, and go damn you got me. This trope repeats through out the whole series. Of course I watched all of them. đđ
I watched it through maybe season 6 or 7 when it first came out. And started rewatching now that Iâve been an attorney for a bit. Some of this shit is so funny. Depositions same day as when theyâre notified, mergers happening in 3 days. Itâs so funny how quickly everything happens. That being said, Harvey is a badass and the only reason Iâm watching
Same. Every case was resolved by either a smoking gun or literal blackmail.
The show is halfway decent sometimes in terms of drama and entertainment but it has to be the most ridiculous show from a legal standpoint - and that's saying a a lot considering the crimes against lawyers that American TV has put forth.
I'm 100% with you on better call Saul. It's the only show that has a somewhat realistic depictions of court and life as a lawyer. In one of the first episodes he is practicing oral arguments in a dingy bathroom for a total loser case, and then gets to the dingy courtroom where everyone looks tired and bored. I was like YES! THAT IS MY LIFE! (Although I like to practice my oral arguments in the car on the way to court.)
Funny enough suits was being filmed in a courthouse in NYC while I was working there a few years back, and I guarantee you whatever they filmed was not a depiction of my day.
In general I avoid lawyer shows as I find then triggering and unrealistic. I'm both annoyed by the depictions and they remind me of looming deadlines on cases. I even found she hulk beyond annnoying, and its a show about a mutant green lawyer. But I loved better call Saul. I do a lot of PI defense and swear to God some of the guys I deal with are Saul (albeit usually with less of his criminal activities. Although one opposing counsel I was dealing with missed his trial conference because he was in jail for stealing several million dollars from his clients.)
So you are criminal defense? If you donât mind me asking are you public or private? In BCS we see both with jimmy and Kim, I have no exposure to the reality of criminal defense lawyers so hearing the opinion of actual criminal defense lawyers with the realism on shows which depict (or attempt to) criminal defense law, means a lot.
I've liked The Lincoln Lawyer, but, I'm not criminal, so maybe I don't notice the flaws.
I "noped out" of suits when two characters walked through a decked out, 4 star law library, complete with actual books.
Fisk is an Australian show streaming on Netflix in the US which isnât bad for a tv show. She does transactional work and it hits a lot of the right notes of someone trying to do their largely boring job despite their personal life and their ridiculous clients and bosses/coworkers.
I LOVE Fisk. We have all had these clients, we have all had to work with these co-workers. She is so realistic and the show is as well. Especially the arguments she has to make. âNo, as executor, you canât make your brother get a vasectomy to get his inheritance.â Absolutly brilliant show. Very dry humor but laughed out loud many times.
The absolute best example of real client interactions.
Best tv show: The Practice. Worst: how to get away with murder.
The Good Wife/The Good Fight. It was more hyperbole of dealing with insane judges and crazy clients, but I felt it in my bones when the lawyers had to accommodate some weird judge's quirk. Also, Diane Lockhart/Christine Baranski is a queen.
I never watched it but my friend who does asked me "do lawyers really unbutton and unbutton their suits jackets every time they sit or stand?"
Lol the men lawyers I know do!
I'd recommend a watch...they are quite good!
I love these shows too. Juliana Marguelis is one of my favorite actresses and I loved all the storylines and other actors. Alan Cummings, Sarah Silverman and that one big bossy lady who plays the head of the DNC who is in everything but whose name fails me right now. (She is also in the show Your Honor on Netflix with Bryan Cranston and itâs great.)
My favorite characters in the Good Wife/Fight though are actually the blonde who plays dumb and then sneak attacks the other side at trial, and the redheaded quirky lawyer Elsbeth.
Have you seen the new spin off show Elsbeth? I love it!!! Although now she is helping/observing the police department instead of being a lawyer so it doesnât have as much to do with the law but itâs great IMO and it has a lot of big star actors who appear in each episode as each one is a crime she has to help solve.
Suits is sooooo bad.
I like Suits a lot. Not for its realism but bc I find the characters entertaining. I watched it before law school as it was airing and again after this year. The thing that really immediately stood out to me is how fast everything happened. Obviously there are tons of other legal flaws, but whatever. Not trying to watch that show as a CLE
Boston Legal was 100x better.
I second this motion.
When Better Call Saul namedropped WestLaw I knew it would probably be the greatest legal work of all time
I canât beat these picks. I made it 1/2 a season into Suites and had to bail. BCS is far and away the best (in terms of showing a firm). The fact that a good part of a season stems from a partner stealing credit for an associates client is spectacular.
For a movie, the classroom stuff in legally blonde nails law school. The internship courtroom stuff is horrid.
I love Legally Blonde but I must blame Reese Witherspoon (and Bruiser) and Judge Judy for my probably bad decision to go to law school.
Silk.
It's a BBC drama on the life of English Barristers trying to make Queen's Counsel (now King's Counsel).
I'm not in criminal law neither am I a barrister, but it really resonates with the daily struggles of court and competition with peers. Very interesting to watch.
As long as we are nominating the brit shows, what about Kavanagh QC?
Judge Judy weirdly fits the vibes of waiting in court for your case to be called.
Better Call Saul premiered while I was studying for the professional responsibility exam, lol. But yes, I absolutely love that show.
You don't need a 'criminal lawyer'. You need a 'criminal' lawyer.
Boston Legal is pretty amazing, especially in the pilot where the main case was when a black girl wanting to play little orphan Annie in a musical proved herself by singing th Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow and Al Sharpton comes in unannounced to give an argument/monologue.
This happens often in your court rooms?
The courtroom scene in the True Grit remake was really good. It even gets hearsay right.
I love that movie from a lawyer's perspective, and yeah I'll bet that courtroom scene is probably a pretty realistic representation of what trials were like back then.
The best depiction of a gavel-to-gavel trial is Ryan Murphyâs OJ Simpson.
Yeah that was great. Nathan Lane's cross had me sooooo hype
I haven't seen much of Better Call Saul, but the scene where he has his defendant sitting somewhere else to trick the witness drives me crazy. That would never be allowed and would just piss off the judge. Edit: I stand corrected, this is based on reality. Damn, some of y'all are getting away with murder out here.
My Cousin Vinny is a really excellent portrayal if state criminal law. Very fast and loose, but shows the actual legwork needed to get the right outcome.
That scene was based on a real case. The lawyer was found in contempt and had to pay $100, but the defendant got a directed verdict of not guilty. My understanding is that it is legal to do in jurisdictions where your defendant is out on bail and doesn't have to sit at counsel's table, but judges hate it.
Iâm in Mississippi. We had a case last year - totally bogus, our crazy mayor has it out for cops - where the idiot witness identified someone other than the defendant. The witnesses all claimed the cops beat the shit out of a guy. Iâm sure that happens but here the autopsy showed no beating.
The movie the Lincoln Lawyer is damn good.
Rake. Classic Aussie legal show. Being in BC, we share many similarities to NSW legal practice - no wigs and we don't use the instructing solicitor model, but similar enough.
Cleaver Greene should be required viewing for lawyers in my opinion.
Not a lawyer show per se but my favorite line in Lucifer, said by a prosecutor to some cops who had a suspect in the interrogation room, âLemme talk to him. He was my client when I was a defense attorney so heâll trust me.â
"Rake" -- a TV show about an Australian barrister was great.
Iâm not a family law attorney but I wanted to bill my time after watching Marriage Story. Just watching that movie felt like work. So it felt realistic enough but fuck if Iâm watching that movie without getting paid.
I am a family law attorney and can confirm it was like watching work lol. Apparently the director or writer based it on his own divorce, which I believe because of how realistic it was.
This is the one I came here for! Not a family lawyer either, but holy hell did parts of that movie literally feel like being at work.
I think client drama, poor client decision making, and personality types like the attorneys in that movie are just in every practice area.
Oh, for sure. I turned to my husband and said, "I swear I literally know all three of these people" when Alan Alda, Laura Dern, and Ray Liotta all showed up. Those portraits were dead-on.
The Wire is pretty realistic.
Came here to say this. It's not primarily about lawyering, but the scenes dealing with it are spot on.
Along the same lines, check out We Own This City.
Yeah, I should have pointed out the scenes with lawyering are somewhat few and far between. I agree We Own This City is excellent, and so is Show Me a Hero, if you havenât checked that one out yet.
The Practice. Ethical dilemmas, cases where the attorney hated the client but still did stellar work and won the case, clients with ridiculous expectations, practicing attorneys who couldnât find their asses with two hands and a flashlightâŚ
Some of the cases were kind of unbelievable but the depiction of the practice of law was mostly pretty spot on.
Rumpole of the Bailey is a British classic about a curmudgeon defense lawyer in England. Love that show.
The Rumpole of the Bailey books authored by barrister John Mortimer & portrayed by Leo McKern are wickedly great!
The worst depiction of lawyering is when criminal defense attorneys let their clients sit down with the police and answer questions. This happens with almost every crime drama.
When they tell the client to stop talking after theyâve just uttered the most self-incriminating sentence ever
Trial lawyer here. Most accurate cross/courtroom Procedure is my cousin Vinny. Very inaccurate is a few good men. Suits is very inaccurate. Better call Saul was remarkably accurate both as to courtroom procedure, big law life, and solo life until the bar trial, which was poorly done.
Ok, but what about the best fake courtroom scenes, where you donât care that itâs fake, because itâs so entertaining?
I just attended a sold-out 30th anniversary showing of Serial Mom. That was perfect!
I was never a big John Waters fan, but I love Serial Mom so much.
Best: My Cousin Vinnie and/or Philadelphia.
Anatomy of a Murder (movie)
Anatomy of a Murder, the 1958 bestseller by Robert Traver (John D. Volker, MI SCT Justice) adapted for the screen by Volker & Wendell Mayes is the only film / tv to cite legal research finding controlling precedent (irresistible impulse) in the course of the representation.
The judge in the film is played by Joseph N. Welch (âat long last have you no sense of decency, sir?â) Special Counsel for the Army in the famous Army v. McCarthy Hearings.
Getting stiffed for the legal fee is as real as the day is long.
When I got to BigLaw I was shocked to find out we all had offices that lacked glass walls and there were no beautiful people to be found anywhere. Most of my fellow IP litigators were more on-spectrum mole people and less Harvey Specter. Cases dragged on for years, a third year couldn't argue at a Markman hearing one afternoon, and next day take a personal injury case like Alicia Florrick... Thankfully no one was sleeping with each other. So there was that upside.
As a defense lawyer: I LOVED BCS. Of course dramatized but nothing stood out to me as crazy. Suits is dumb af. Lincoln lawyer is in the middle. Not extremely realistic but not crazy either. I stopped liking that show when he started trading info with his prosecutor ex wife.
Paul Newman in The Verdict. Kind of depressing so I don't rewatch it, but it's a pretty good movie!
THE PRACTICE is so good. Truly the best legal drama.
Suits is a top contender for worst depiction, as is Boston Legal which I recently had the displeasure of re-watching. It has not aged well.
I watched about 15 minutes of the Good Wife and had to turn it off when she started arguing to the jury during her examination of a witness.
I would have turned it off too, after yelling at the TV
Best: My Cousin Vinny; Worst: Suits
Criminal lawyer here. I found the show Lincoln Lawyer to be shockingly accurate. Maybe people will have qualms about Micky Haller hooking up with his client in season two, but that shit happens in real life and in the show he actually handled it in a manner that the bar probably would have required him to.
But the trial scenes, from jury selection to closing arguments are super accurate. There's no Perry Mason "gotcha" moments. Just skilled cross examination to create reasonable doubt.
Most unrealistic part is that Mickey can afford a full time driver and investigator for his solo practice...
The Lincoln Lawyer. Books, Movie, and TV show. Dramatic but still accurate at its core. I'm a criminal defense attorney and I rarely am sitting at my desk during court and jail visitation hours. I actually considered an limo service that offered WiFi service to shuttle me between court houses đ¤Ş
Trial & Error TV series. Is a PERFECT parody of legal shows and true crime podcasts.
My Cousin Vinny. I'm in the South. This is accurate.
Harvey Birdman, Attorney At Law
There was also the spinoff, Birdgirl, but tbh I never watched it.
I loved Jury Duty (Amazon), which shows the inner workings of an jury trial through the eyes of a real guy who doesn't know that everyone, except for him, is an actor. It's a comedy, but I spend a lot of time in court and have seen so many of the things the lawyers and judge were doing for laughs. (I think the judge actually is a judge in real life).
Daredevil. Putting aside the idiotic law school experience â dorms? Elective language classes? Thereâs that early scene where the little guy shows up with his lawyers to a big law firm and the room is full of big law lawyers who tell the guy heâs going to lose and then he and his lawyers are crestfallen. Dude if I was representing an individual and a room full of the opposing firms partners were meeting with me Iâd have dollar sign slot machine eyes
You donât watch Suit for the lawyering. You watch it for
The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story did an excellent job.
BCS is about as good as it's ever been on American television.
Suits is the worst.
I watched The Practice as a kid and then again after law school and thought it was actually pretty decent on some procedure stuff. Obviously a lot of drama and non-realism, too, but still.
But also, David E. Kelley made it and he was a lawyer.
Just had this conversation with some friends. They asked how I felt about a show they started watching called Presumed Innocent. Itâs an AppleTV show about a DDA who is charged with murder of his colleague/mistress and is being represented by the recently defeated and retired incumbent DA. My wife says I ruin the show when I point out all the inconsistencies. But over all, the first episode has not been terribly unrealistic from a defense side. I live in a jurisdiction with one of the largest DA offices in the country where there has been plenty of well documented and even some published decisions regarding fuckery on the part of the DAâs office. Although I do wonder, are politics really that bad in the office of the DA?
LA Law.
If anyone remembers that miniseries The Night Of, that one felt like a much more realistic depiction of the criminal process than most other depictions Iâve seen, but the bar for that is pretty low.
I was always really impressed by the depiction of legal practice in The Good Wife. Excellent portrayal of judicial personas, the distinction between state, federal, and local courts (and the portrayal of each) the client recruitment dynamics (especially the PI / mass tort client recruitment). Iâve recommended it to newer lawyers several times.
Better Call Saul had the most accurate depiction of the job Iâve ever seen: when the actress is spending hours working late into the night on a brief and canât decide whether to use a colon, m-dash, etc., so she keeps deleting and retyping it đ
Every time Iâve tried to get into Suits, the complete lack of even basic professional ethics ruins it for me. Itâs not that I get offended. It just comes across as contrived and breaks the immersion. Itâs like what a lay person must imagine those wily lawyers are like.
I love suits (watched it before the world knew who Meghan Markle was) but itâs hilarious how TV lawyering works.
Better call Saul is pretty good tho!
The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald. Gerry Spence v Vincent Bugilosi. Was a BBC Tv Movie. Actual witnesses to the events testified. Closest thing I have seen to real criminal trial. Because it was. With great lawyers. DVD on Amazon
The best movie depiction is My Cousin Vinny.
Good grief: Perry Mason, always (almost) won. LA Law: made eating Chinese takeout at 8pm for partners while doing discovery sexy (pizza for the paralegals at 6pm at best). Having practiced at the lower levels like LT, Better Call Saul could be accurate (not trapping judges/opo using counsel in elevators).
Was a junior associate at a firm around the time of LA Law, we used to bring in Vietnamese takeout when working late.
loooved Better Call Saul... except for the ending- was a bit clichĂŠ.. everything else was great
I am a fan of the reboot of Perry Mason. Also, anyone with Apple TV can check out both Defending Jacob and Presumed Innocence.
The worst offender Iâve seen in Bull. Since when does a trial scientist or psychologist come up with the legal strategy and receive offers to present to the client? Oh and donât forget the crime happened last week on a Friday and on a Monday we are at voir dire oh and they seem to have unlimited challenges for cause. When I watch that show I giggle all the time at the procedure of law.
Do we not all have unlimited challenges for cause...?
What jurisdiction has limited âfor causeâ challenges? Preliminaries, sure. But limited âfor causeâ screams a variety of constitutional violations.
As a litigator, Iâve always wanted more shows/movies about litigation. So many legal dramas are about criminal law, which I admit is sexier, but doesnât interest me, mainly because I know nothing about it other than what I learned in law school.
Iâm one of those guys who worked his way up from the bottom at a law firm. I started as a runner, moved up to file clerk, then paralegal, finally law school. Thatâs why I love both Harvey Spector and Jimmy McGill because they started at the bottom as well. I love how those characters developed.
Another thing Suits nails is the atmosphere of a law firm. The internal politics, personality types, legal staff, etc.
Obviously, it does a poor job with accurately portraying litigation. I find it especially humorous how the attorneys argue their case, on tape, during depositions, while the dependent doesnât say anything.
From an ethics perspective, any episode of Suits could be picked at random and played in a PR case to illustrate what not to do.
The Night Of. Best depiction of the entire criminal justice system
I purposely don't watch lawyer shows usually but Partner Track on Netflix was really bad.
I wholly disagree. I absolutely want more lawyer themed romance dramas! đ¤Ş
Haha it was a pretty show with a hot cast and I think (again, I don't watch legal shows really so I'm not sure) one of the few corporate heavy instead of litigation focused shows. But it was just super inaccurate...I made a comment that this must be what doctors feel when watching medical shows.
I don't remember the exact details now but...sixth years supposedly up for partner track the next year (uh...hardly ever unless you count stuff like Kirkland's jr partners) fighting over doing NDAs, completely missing MAE clauses until the 11th hour, no one ever has their computer on or laptop even open in their office, getting on one deal is apparently the make-or-break of making partner, no one works except on one matter at a time, Arden Cho doing something (I don't remember what -- diligence? Again, as someone supposedly up for partner??) lounging on top of her desk like a foxy mama -- I just couldn't lol. I watched the whole season though HAHA.
I really liked the first couple episodes of âThe Night Ofâ but then it went to shit when it hit the courtroom.
The Practice was spot on.
Presumed Innocent with Harrison Ford, the book was written by a real lawyer and itâs so so good.
For our orientation of the first semester law school in late 90s, they had us watch A Civil Action thinking it would provide some context into daily life & risks.
The Firm. The time pressures and impact on home life were realistic. Was curious if others have experienced intrigue similar to thè skeletons in the closet at their office?
Weirdly the courtroom scenes were pretty good in the otherwise awful Madonna movie Body of Evidence. Joe Mantegna does a great job as her defense attorney.
I also thought the People v. OJ courtroom scenes were good. (Makes sense, since they literally had cottage of the trial.)
Big Little Lies season two was one of the worst ever.
I canât believe how bad of a show Suits is!!! I recently started watching it with my husband because he likes it and I couldnât stop laughing at how ridiculous it is all around. Not just the lawyering parts (also those are few and far between and so boring and are all about companies fighting with each other over money, who cares, and the rest of it is just some office soap opera stuff) but just all of it. I also hate all the characters, they are despicable. Only mind that show should win the Worst Legal Show Ever (or maybe Worst Show Ever period) award.
I do usually love shows involving the law though. A good one we watched recently was Your Honor with Bryan Cranston on Netflix. I also love Better Call Saul, The Good Wife, The Good Fight, the new Elsbeth spin off (!!) but thatâs more detective than law and the Law and Order franchise but especially SVU although thatâs more detective than law usually too.
I also like lesser known shows about the law like Trial & Error with John Lithgow, and Drop Dead Diva. I wasnât that into Bull but it was okay. I know a lot of people who like Partner Track but I havenât seen it yet.
Thereâs a TV show called Fisk about a struggling older female lawyer in Australia that I feel rings pretty true to life for a lot of lawyers and is pretty realistic although there are some obviously made up scenes. (Then again, I think a completely realistic depiction of practicing law would be boring and take forever to find out what happens with the long timelines of civil cases that go to trial, so I understand why they take creative liberties lol.)
I also love love love to read legal thrillers or other fiction involving the law and lawyers of any kind.
I love all legal-themed entertainment so much that I have thought about doing deep dives into legal shows and books to introduce people to storylines involving lawyers and explain to people what is realistic and what isnât. Not sure if there would be interest or if Iâd have the time though. Also Iâve thought of dissecting office/workplace themed storylines and explaining how legally problematic some of them are and how much legal trouble the characters would be in in real life. Haha.
But yeah Suits is a very shitty show in my opinion. It should be called Shits!
Suits is terrible. I think I made it a season before pulling the plug. Wasn't one of the main lawyers, ummm, not a lawyer? Also, watching them throw haymakers at a deposition was...odd.
BCS is great.
I'll add the original Law & Order. I never practiced criminal law but I thought a lot of the courtroom drama was somewhat believable.
2 of best
My Cousin Vinny
A Few Good Men
Use both to teach new lawyers
A Marriage Story may as well be a documentary. It didnât surprise me that the director based it on his own divorce because of how realistic it was. It was like watching work lol
'A Civil Action' is pretty good. Certain aspects are sensationalized, but it captures other parts really well, i.e. the scene where Thatcher is teaching his law school class ("never ask a question you don't already know the answer to"), the attorney-client relationship, and how long and expensive discovery can be. Â
And of course I agree that BCS and MCV are great. Â
Liar Liar in the best and funniest way for sure.
Erin Brockovich for the worst.
I know suits is a popular answer but all of the courtroom stuff in daredevil is so dumb. That said the âhow long have you guys been lawyers?â scene is great.
Suits
Medium.
Power is the absolute worst lawyering. âMade For TV B.S!â is usually what I am yelling every episode.
Pete from The Bear is my favorite TV lawyer. No depictions of him lawyering, but he's just such a real person.
Punisherâs trial in season 2 of Daredevil nearly killed me.
BUT the last scene of the âDukes of Hazzardâ movie. Holy crap.
Please do not ask why I was watching it at all. Mistakes were made by everyone.
I would love to see a show or movie that shows motions in limine.
I just argued against a superb opponent and it was one of the most delicious experiences I have had as a lawyer. (I wonât dox OC, but you know who you are) The judge asked the right questions, OC was skilled and had cases on point as well as the ability to think on their feet. It was very, very satisfying. The only people to witness the melee was the clerk and court reporter.
I havenât seen this part of trial in the movies and yet itâs so critical to securing a victory.
Bail review on the good wife.
Now think about how many 1Ls say Suits was what inspired them to go to law school. They're all in for a world of disappointment. Like, more than the usual law school graduate.Â
Hey, man. If they want to pay to see me bill 8.4 hours in 0.2 increments I'll be all for it so long as the client(s) are lol
Just watch every Lionel Hutz episode of the simpsons. You're welcome.
I thought Dark Waters about the pfas environmental suit was pretty accurate in that the causes that really matter are sometimes the least rewarding and toughest on the lawyer.
Better call Saul not just for criminal defense but for depiction of new solo attorney life doing business development. Everyoneâs had the potential clients he has had.
The Sopranos. âjudge, Iâd like to discuss a logistical issueâ and Junior Soprano looking like he wants to kill himself for being accurate.
The first episode of suits where Harvey is supposed to be super impressed because Mike can quote a definition of agency while playing solitaire is one of the dumbest.
"Spring Break Lawyer" is the most realistic
Goliath was really good.
I'm just starting Your Honor on Netflix it's pretty good so far.
I absolutely hate Sisters on BET. All my friends tell me how exciting the Andy is portrayed. She represents her married loverâs wife in their divorce proceeding while sleeping with the husband with no consequences even after it gets exposed. She is always hanging out with her friends/leaving court and work whenever, shows up wearing corsets to court, practices a billion fields of law yet it specialized in every area.
Goliath does a decent job of showing how fucked up this job is.
I am Sam depicts the sadness and heartbreak of some cases as well as an attorney is so too overworked to have an actual life.
My brother-in-law works in TV production. He was once pitched a show that would follow real-life lawyers around through their cases. They dropped the idea when they realized how incredibly slow and boring it was (not to mention privilege issues).