Commentary: Big screen gives public view of lawyers

Daily Record and the Kansas City Daily News-Press, Jan 22, 2007 by Craig Napier

My partner is an adjunct professor at a local university, and I'm kind of envious.

He is teaching a class about law and popular culture, and we have been musing about how he is going to set up his syllabus for the class.

It will essentially be one of those upper-level survey classes that we all took during our undergraduate days. Some reading, lots of movies, discussions, and one big paper.

One topic has kind of made the old wheels in my head start turning: the startling metamorphosis we lawyers have taken in pop culture over the past 50 or 60 years.

The late '50s and '60s had Jimmy Stewart in Anatomy of a Murder, Spencer Tracey in Inherit the Wind, and last - but if you have read this column before you know not least - Gregory Peck in To Kill a Mockingbird, the '70s and '80s gave us Paul Newman in The Verdict and Al Pacino in And Justice For All, and the '90s gave us such greats as Joe Pesci in My Cousin Vinny, Matt Damon in The Rainmaker, John Travolta in A Civil Action, and Tom Cruise in The Firm and A Few Good Men.

Our "lawyerly" perception to the public comes from a variety of sources, both from these movies and the seemingly endless list of television shows about cops and lawyers.

Simply looking at film we have gone from humble, noble men to drunk, obsessive, noble men, winding up with obsessed, buffoonish jerks who can be noble men when pressed.

But where are all the female lawyers in movies?

I guess if you think about it, there really have not been too many noble women figures in the history of movies. I mean there are plenty of them on television in the past 10 or 15 years, but most of the women you see in movies as lawyers sleep with the protagonist and rat him out in the end or face some other kind of ethical dilemma. Of course The Client with Susan Sarandon is a pretty good representation of a competent female attorney, but we have gone from that to the Legally Blonde franchise. I almost forgot about Ashley Judd in High Crimes, but that was just not that great a movie though she seemed pretty confident.

So I guess if you leave aside the total absence of diversity, the movie industry has done a little better with showing the various forms we lawyers come in, we are all certainly not noble, and there are a good amount of obsessed, drunk, buffoons out there practicing law. Movie makers still need to show what a truly diverse occupation it continues to become, and maybe even a movie about slugging out, making small victories for small clients occupy your existence to build a noble reputation and legacy.

Or maybe not.

That sounds about as boring as Mr. Holland's Opus.

I bet the next big lawyer movie will be about how sleazy we can be, or maybe it will be on a more cutting edge side of the law - Steve vs. Steve instead of Kramer vs. Kramer.

If nothing else, I think understanding the way pop culture portrays us to consumers is key to understanding the expectations of our clients when they walk through the door. Too bad there are far too many lawyer shows on TV to absorb them all; we would not have time to practice law if we watched that much TV. But understanding client expectations is key.

I am learning more and more every day that managing your client's expectations goes a long way to keep your client communications low stress. And it might help get you some business through the door as well.

Craig Napier practices in Kansas City, performing litigation for small businesses and families throughout the metro area. He can be reached at craig@napierlawfirm.net.